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Book _ 

I <3 Z cl. 

Copyright If_ S=£j? . •~{ri 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 









































CONSCIOUS 

AUTOSUGGESTION 




















CONSCIOUS 

AUTOSUGGESTION 


EMILE gOUE 

AND 

J. LOUIS ORTON 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
NEW YORK * * MCMXXIV 



COPYRIGHT, 1924, BY 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



©Cl A808638 



?HXTID Ilf THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

NOV “4 *24 


INTRODUCTION 


In psychology, as in every other domain of practical 
science, experience alone is the final arbitrator.—R ibot. 

Autosuggestion is the planting of an idea (or 
suggestion) in oneself by oneself. The boy who 
whistles to keep his courage up whilst in the dark, 
and the savage who endeavours to increase his 
bravery and formidable presence by war-cries and 
fantastic movements, alike use autosuggestion. 
Indeed, it is an agent which we all employ, whether 
we desire or not, from the cradle to the grave. 
Whether it is a blessing or a curse to us depends 
entirely upon how it is applied. When employed 
with intent, its practice is usually characterised 
by clumsiness and inefficiency. Until of late, few 
indeed have been the persons who have attained 
even a tolerable amount of skill in its application. 
It is admitted on all hands that, for some reason 
or other, my system has met the public need to 
an unprecedented extent. Some think that result 
is due to a peculiar influence exerted by myself, 
but my pupils get results equally good; and you 
also, even if your mental abilities are as yet noth- 


VI 


INTRODUCTION 


ing above the average, will be able to do likewise 
if you carefully adhere to the instructions con¬ 
tained in this course. And if I am asked why 
I am so positive on that point, my reply is that 
the system is founded upon a close analysis of 
Nature’s own processes. I am merely a sign-post 
indicating the quickest and best way to health, 
success, and happiness—a way already travelled 
by many thousands of persons. 

Essential Trifles.—Michael Angelo was finish¬ 
ing a statue. ‘‘You have been idle since I last saw 
you,” said a friend who had called upon him. 
“By no means,” replied the great sculptor. “I 
have touched up this part, polished that; I have 
softened this feature, brought out this muscle; I 
have given more expression to the lips and more 
energy to this limb.” “Well,” said the other, 
“but all these are trifles.” “It may be so,” replied 
Angelo, “but recollect that trifles make perfection, 
and perfection is no trifle.” 

To ignore “little” things so as to get sooner 
at the bigger ones is a common fault, but one that 
not infrequently has serious, even disastrous, 
effects, for “apparent” trifles are apt to prove 


INTRODUCTION 


VI1 


of vital importance. It is by but apparently little 
things that the system I have formulated differs 
from others; those “trifles,” however, have often 
enabled persons who, after practising various 
other systems ineffectually, sought my advice, to 
get even more benefit than they imagined possible. 

Autosuggestion is primarily a method of self- 
education—physical and mental. It deals with 
the treatment of disease in as much as no method 
of education can be complete which ignores the 
utilisation of the self-healing power inherent in 
everyone. Intelligent autosuggestion aims at the 
harmonious working of all the mental functions, 
and one of these functions is the control of one’s 
own organism. 

Medical Uncertainties.—In dealing with thera¬ 
peutics, two great difficulties present themselves— 
viz.: 

1. The correctness or otherwise of the diag¬ 
nosis, and— 

2. The ascertainment of how far (if at all) 
the “remedies” employed were concerned in the 
recovery or relapse. 

One medical writer relates that once when 


INTRODUCTION 


viii 

travelling through Germany he was invited to 
the house of a rich old man who had been for 
many years an invalid. This old man had at first 
consulted, regarding his complaint, two eminent 
physicians. They quarrelled over its nature, and 
he went elsewhere. He would be satisfied to be 
treated, he declared, provided he could find three 
doctors who agreed regarding his complaint. In 
a special book he reported the diagnoses of his 
complaint and the “remedies” prescribed, and 
made a hobby of consulting celebrated physicians. 
He was never able, however, to find three doctors 
who agreed respecting his case. His report-book 
had the appearance of a large folio ledger, and 
the records therein were kept as tables. In the 
first column were the names of the physicians 
consulted—477 in all. In the second column were 
statements regarding the alleged nature of the 
disease; these numbered 313, differing impor¬ 
tantly from each other. The third column con¬ 
tained the prescriptions, numbering 832, contain¬ 
ing in all 1,097 remedies. At the bottom of each 
page was given the sum total of the fees. 

That narrative is doubtless an exceptional one. 


INTRODUCTION 


IX 


Nevertheless, the lack of uniformity among medi¬ 
cal opinions must be manifest to all persons whose 
vocation brings them closely in touch with the 
faculty. Much of the confusion would be avoided, 
I am convinced, were the study of psychology 
given its due share of attention. Dr. C. W. 
Saleeby, with admirable candour, stated recently: 

“Nineteenth-century medicine, as taught in the 
schools, had no need of mind. But it is, or should 
be, obvious that a cardinal subject, of ever-present 
and fundamental importance, is omitted from our 
medical curricula hitherto.” 

My Role.—One of my English disciples has 
drawn my attention to the following passage, 
culled from The Daily Mail of September 17, 
1902 : 

“In England the medical profession is, as a 
whole, too much hidebound by conventionality 
and tradition. More than this, it is under the 
dominion of an age of Specialism, which divides 
the body into so many different sections, each of 
which is treated apart, with but little recognition 
of the unity of the individual or the controlling 
spirit which so largely affects all cures. So great 


X 


INTRODUCTION 


has this Specialism become that there is now a 
crying need for a new Specialism—the Specialism 
of the man as a whole—a living, sentient being, 
not an agglomeration of cunningly contrived 
machines.” 

The “crying need” referred to was not con¬ 
fined to England. My disciple insists that the 
system I have formulated supplies what was called 
for. I am not a doctor, and would much prefer 
to be considered in the light of the doctor’s aux¬ 
iliary. By a curious coincidence, however, only 
a few years before the quoted statement was pub¬ 
lished, I had placed the great force of autosugges¬ 
tion upon a workable basis. I am convinced, 
however, that conscious autosuggestion, so con¬ 
ducted, could form the keystone of a complete 
system of therapy. 

In all cases of serious organic disability, I say 
to those who seek me out: “Are you receiving 
medical treatment?” If they reply “Yes,” I give 
the advice: “Continue with it then, and practise 
autosuggestion also.” If they reply “No,” I say: 
“Consult a doctor then, and follow his treatment 
as well as using autosuggestion. You will find 


INTRODUCTION 


xi 


i 

that the two treatments help each other.” Auto¬ 
suggestion is the natural ally of medical precepts. 
Very many physicians realise this fact, and apply 
it in their everyday work. Nothing would please 
me more than that the general body of doctors 
would adopt a more extended recommendation 
of autosuggestion. The patient who both obeys 
his physician and sets about the acquirement of 
a favourable mental outlook is an ideal autosug- 
gestionist. 

“Medicines.”—I would say to a doctor: “Give 
‘medicines’ to persons who expect them, even if 
you don’t believe in them yourself”; and to 
patients: “Do not insist upon having any medi¬ 
cine; you may only get coloured water for your 
pains.” Don’t run away with the idea that col¬ 
oured water can do no good, however! During 
the famous siege of Breda in 1625 the garrison 
was so reduced by scurvy that surrender was con¬ 
templated. But a message came from the Prince 
of Orange that in a few days an infallible specific 
for scurvy would be sent. A few phials were duly 
received, and the “medicine” was distributed—a 
few drops in a gallon of water—with the aston- 


Xll 


INTRODUCTION 


ishing result that (in Vander Mey’s words) “such 
as had not moved their limbs for a month walked 
the streets, sound, straight, and whole; and those 
whom former remedies had made worse were 
restored to perfect health.” The “remedy” was 
coloured water! 

Very many doctors look upon the employment 
of medicines as a. mere remnant of superstition. 
Do you know the meaning of the special R which 
heads a prescription? It is an invocation to the 
heathen god Jupiter. 

Early during the last century the celebrated 
Magendie, in addressing his medical class, said: 
“Gentlemen, medicine is a great humbug. I know 
it is called science. . . . Science indeed! It is 
nothing like science. Nature does a great deal; 
imagination a great deal; doctors—devilish little 
when they don’t do any harm. Let me tell you, 
gentlemen, what I did when I was physician at 
the Hotel Dieu. Some three or four thousand 
patients passed through my hands every year. I 
divided the patients into two classes. With one 
I followed the dispensary and gave the usual 
medicines, without having the least idea why or 


INTRODUCTION 


xm 


wherefore; to the others I gave bread pills and 
coloured water, without, of course, letting them 
know anything about it; and occasionally, gentle¬ 
men, I would create a third division, to whom I 
would give nothing whatever. These last would 
fret a great deal; they would feel they were neg¬ 
lected; sick people always feel they are neglected 
unless they are well drugged —les imbeciles !— 
and they would irritate themselves until they got 
really sick; but Nature invariably came to the 
rescue, and all the third class got w r ell. There 
was but little mortality amongst those who re¬ 
ceived the bread pills and coloured water, but the 
mortality was greatest among those who were 
carefully drugged according to the dispensary.” 

Drugs have their uses, nevertheless. They are 
of service for getting rid of scabies and other 
parasitic skin complaints; for the killing of worms; 
as anaesthetics (during operations, or to subdue 
suffering) ; and as antidotes to certain poisons. 
Very little more can be truthfully asserted in their 
favour. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: “I 
firmly believe that if the whole materia medica 
could be sunk to the bottom of the sea it would 


xiv INTRODUCTION 

be all the better for mankind and all the worse 
for the fishes.” 

The Scope of Autosuggestion.—Much of my 
work is intimately connected with the healing art; 
but the application of autosuggestion for the en¬ 
hancing of intellectual and moral qualities is of 
equally great importance. It greatly modifies 
one’s outlook upon life, consequently influences 
behaviour as well as condition of health. We 
become the pilots of our own destiny. Moreover, 
knowing how to practise autosuggestion con¬ 
sciously, we are able not only to avoid evoking 
in others bad autosuggestions which may have 
disastrous consequences; we can consciously evoke 
good ones instead, thus bringing physical health 
to the sick, and moral health to the neurotic and 
the erring, the unconscious victims of anterior 
autosuggestion, and guiding into the right path 
those who had a tendency to take the wrong one. 
From the cradle to the grave conscious autosug¬ 
gestion should form the basis of a philosophy of 
life, a philosophy capable of producing a race 
endued with the highest physical, intellectual, and 
moral attributes. 


Emile Cou£ 


/ 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Key to Effective Autosuggestion i 

II The Physical Bases of Health . . 23 

III Self-Treatment for Exponents Espe¬ 

cially .38 

IV The Exponent’s Attitude and Man¬ 

ner . 51 

V Ten Illustrative Experiments . . 60 

VI Inclusive Suggestions.78 

VII Coueism and Diet. 89 

VIII Coueism, Physical Culture and Reme¬ 
dial Exercise.103 

IX Coueism and Success. 113 

X Maternity. 125 

XI The Home-Training of Children . 133 

XII Coueism in the Schoolroom . . . 162 

XIII Additional Educational Hints, 

Mainly for Adults.180 

XIV Coueism in Moral Reform . . . 187 

XV Concluding Hints.199 













r I 





) 



CONSCIOUS 

AUTOSUGGESTION 

CHAPTER I 

THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE 
AUTOSUGGESTION 

S OME of you will require a considerable time 
to master everything contained in this course. 
Could you have mastered the principles before you 
commenced the study (speaking paradoxically), 
much less time would be needed, for the course 
contains in itself the secrets through which any, or 
almost any, future study can be readily mastered. 

Fortunately, there are certain important points 
that can be readily understood and applied even 
by young children. We do not purpose to treat 
you as children, but shall endeavour to so present 
the subject that no obstacles involuntarily manu¬ 
factured by yourselves will prevent or even 
(avoidably) delay your progress. 


2 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


Crucial Tests.—If a plank thirty feet long and 
one foot wide were placed flat on the ground, 
could you walk along it? You could? But were 
the plank suspended from the summits of two 
cathedral towers, two hundred feet high, could 
you then? In all likelihood you would feel giddy 
and tremble before you had taken two steps, and 
then fall to the ground. 

From a physical standpoint the feats are iden¬ 
tical. Why, then, should you find the second one 
so impracticable? Some writers have asserted 
that the difficulty is due to confusion in the mind 
through unacquaintance with, and consequent 
inability to compute, long distances viewed from 
above. That those writers are wrong in their 
conjecture is evident from the fact that the blind 
are commonly affected by giddiness when they 
suppose they are in similar perilous positions. 
The effect is due to the retention in consciousness, 
because of the obviously disastrous result of a 
false step, of the idea of falling. The idea tends 
to transform itself into reality, and the harder 
the struggle not to fall, the quicker is the coming 
about of the catastrophe. If opportunity occur, 


EFFECTIVE AUTOSUGGESTION 3 

put your head out of the window at the top of 
the Eiffel Tower and look down; the fallacy of 
any other explanation of the vertigo will then 
become evident. In the case of the elevated plank, 
if you cannot walk along it, that is because you 
think you cannot . Steeplejacks succeed because 
they think they can . 

Those of you who are cyclists will remember 
the days when you were learning to ride; how 
you clutched at the handle-bars, were fearful of 
falling, and, if you saw a stone lying ahead, would 
actually swerve round somewhat to make for it. 
Instead of looking in the direction in which you 
desired to go, you would fix your gaze on the 
stone, moving your head slightly in order to more 
readily do so. The centre of gravity would thus 
be altered, the leading wheel, like a falling hoop, 
would twist towards the stone, and the dreaded 
collision would consequently occur. Here again 
one sees how fear leads exactly to what one wishes 
to avoid. 

Persons bathing know theoretically that float¬ 
ing is really an easy matter. Nevertheless, think 
of the many bathing fatalities! With the mental 


4 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

picture of sinking in the forefront of conscious¬ 
ness, the movements made in order to float are 
just the opposite of what they should be. 

A person, whether desirous or otherwise, ex¬ 
pects to sleep. The picture of sleep appears in 
the mind; the person surrenders to the idea, and 
sleeps. On the other hand, the mental picture of 
wakefulness leads to insomnia. 

To swallow a pill is obviously in itself a very 
simple matter, but how often through effort (the 
result of the presence of a wrong idea in the 
mind) a person is rendered unable to do it! 

If we wish to restrain laughter, but doubt our 
ability to succeed in the attempt, we laugh the 
more. Some persons profess to restrain their 
own laughter by pricking themselves with a pin, 
or resorting to some other similar expedient. 
The value of the artifice employed may lie slightly 
in the diversion of attention, but it is mainly due 
to the faith exercised. 

If we try to force ourselves to be pleased, we 
become annoyed; if to be agreeable, we become 
boring. 

Charles Darwin laid a wager with a dozen 


EFFECTIVE AUTOSUGGESTION 5 

young men that they would not sneeze if they 
took snuff, though they all declared that they 
invariably sneezed under that circumstance. A 
doubt of success was thereby aroused in their 
minds; consequently, though their eyes watered, 
not one sneezed, and the scientist won his bet. 

There are certain drunkards who intensely 
desire to be cured of their bad habit, but still 
they persist in it. They will tell you that they 
desire to be sober, that drink disgusts them, but 
that in spite of efforts they cannot overcome the 
habit. These drunkards are slaves of an idea— 
the idea that they cannot become sober. 

Similarly, certain criminals declare they com¬ 
mit crimes “in spite of themselves.” “I could 
not help it; something impelled me, it was stronger 
than I.” That “something” is the imagination. 

So many persons look upon their qualities and 
various other characteristics as fixtures with which 
they were born, consequently beyond their con¬ 
trol, and inevitably doomed to be carried to the 
grave! “My nerves get the better of me,” “I 
worry so, I can’t help it,” and kindred complaints 


6 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

show how numerous are the victims of that notion 
—one to which they are slaves. 

The Key to Success.—Probably, when failing 
to recollect a required word, you are accustomed 
to say: “I’ll give my attention to something 
else, and I shall remember soon!” Effort has 
thwarted. The thought has been: “I want to 
remember, but I can’t.” The effort dispensed 
with, and the idea “I shall remember soon” sub¬ 
stituted for the contrary one, success commonly 
results. The frustrating effect here evidenced of 
effort and opposing thought closely resembles 
stage-fright, and is almost the sole obstacle to 
successful public speaking. The victim of stage- 
fright resembles the fearful would-be plank- 
walker, and his example we want you sedulously 
to avoid in undertaking the study and practice of 
autosuggestion. Say to yourself, as you have 
probably done after effortfully attempting to 
recall a temporarily forgotten word: “I shall re¬ 
member.” Do not get flurried. If you have not 
grasped the meaning of a passage after the first 
time of reading, rise above any feeling of worry. 
Simply peruse the passage again, and calmly re- 


EFFECTIVE AUTOSUGGESTION 7 

fleet upon its significance. As far as practicable, 
test every point as you proceed. Don’t be con¬ 
tent with learning words; learn facts. The main 
reasons that so many persons have failed in their 
attempts at practising autosuggestion is that they 
have hoped they would master it, instead of 
assumed they would, and that they have en¬ 
deavoured to attain their object by the employ¬ 
ment of effortful thought. People are always 
preaching the doctrine of effort, but this idea must 
be repudiated. Always think of what you have 
to do as easy if possible. In that state of mind 
you will not expend more energy than is abso¬ 
lutely necessary; whereas, if you consider your 
task difficult, you will expend ten, twenty times 
more strength than is needful; in other words, 
you will waste it. The wasted energy is neces¬ 
sarily expended somewhere, and almost invari¬ 
ably in such a manner as to partially, if not com¬ 
pletely, thwart your endeavour. 

Soundness of method is the basis of success 
in this study, as elsewhere. If the student’s start 
is wrong, all, or nearly all, that follows is wrong. 


8 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


The next point that we wish to drive home is 
the relative positions of the Will and the Imagi¬ 
nation. 

The statement 1 that “our actions spring, not 
from our will, but from our imagination,” has 
given rise to much controversy; yet its truth can 
be readily demonstrated. The fact of your de¬ 
siring to perform an action does not of itself 
make you capable of performing it. What en¬ 
ables you to perform it (supposing it to be intrin¬ 
sically possible) is the idea that you can do it. 
If you desire to do it, but think that you cannot, 
your energy is wrongly located, and therefore 
the greater the amount of energy you put forth, 
the more signal and rapid is your defeat—as with 
the elevated plank-walker. 

Of course, you may be “thrown off your guard,” 
covertly or otherwise, and thus perform feats of 
which you thought yourself incapable, but that 
differs little from the action of involuntary imagi¬ 
nation. When you think an achievement is what 
it is not, you may do more or less than you imag- 


1 Emile Coue, Self-Mastery, 



EFFECTIVE AUTOSUGGESTION 9 

ined possible; it depends largely upon your belief. 
Examples are the lifting of a weight and the 
singing of this or that note. Persons who imagine 
that they cannot swallow pills may nevertheless 
swallow plum-stones. 

People in general are very proud of possessing 
“freewill”; yet they do not possess such liberty 
otherwise than do the lower animals. Mankind 
may choose more intelligently than do the brutes, 
owing to the superiority of reason and intelli¬ 
gence. Ultimately, however, the success or fail¬ 
ure to attain the object of our desire depends (as 
we have shown) upon Imagination. It also “per¬ 
forms the initial and essential functions in every 
branch of human development.” Man’s upward 
path from barbarism to civilisation is due to the 
intelligent use of the imagination. As Sir Ben¬ 
jamin Brodie once said in addressing the British 
Royal Society, of which he was President, imagi¬ 
nation “left to ramble uncontrolled leads us astray 
into a wilderness of perplexities and errors, a land 
of mists and shadows; but, properly controlled 
by experience and reflection, becomes the noblest 
attribute of man, the source of poetic genius, the 


I o CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


instrument of discovery in science, without the 
aid of which Newton would never have invented 
fluxions, nor Davy have decomposed the earths 
and alkalies, nor would Columbus have found 
another continent.” 

“The creative power of the mind,” as stated 
the philosopher Hume, “amounts to no more than 
the faculty of compounding, transposing, aug¬ 
menting, or diminishing the materials afforded 
us by the senses and experience.” Imagination 
supplies the materials, from the storehouse of 
memory, and combines them—sometimes effec¬ 
tively, sometimes otherwise. Genuine sympathy 
is dependent upon imagination which enables us 
to mentally identify ourselves in a measure with 
others. The cultivation of imagination is there¬ 
fore needed for our moral guidance. How other¬ 
wise can we “do to others as we would they should 
do unto us” ? 

Action and the Unconscious Mind.—Do you 
think you can bend an arm at the elbow? Yes? 
Then that essential, your imagination, is ready. 
Please to bend the arm as much as you can. What 
is your sensation as regards the accompanying 


EFFECTIVE AUTOSUGGESTION n 


contraction of the biceps, the muscle shortened 
and thickened during the performance? Is it not 
that of moving the forearm and thereby squeez¬ 
ing the muscle? But what has really happened? 
The contraction of the biceps has caused the bend¬ 
ing at the elbow. The end was aimed at, not the 
means. It is as if a seed (the idea) were sown 
in the mind, with the assurance that from it the 
desired action would spring. Consciously we 
know nothing of the intricate intermediate stages. 
Were it not for this apparently automatic mech¬ 
anism which acts in accordance with the imagi¬ 
nation, babies, being devoid of physiological 
knowledge, would be quite unable to walk. Seeing 
other persons walk, babies picture themselves as 
acting likewise; they attempt, and in accordance 
with their conception of the actions involved 
(balancing, and so on) they attain proficiency. A 
child learning to walk is in a similar position to 
an adult learning to ride a bicycle or to swim. 
He has to learn some things, to realise them in 
himself as well as theoretically indeed, but his 
imagination has to come into play throughout. 
If he doubt his ability to walk, he is as certain 


1 2 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


to fail in his attempts as fearful would-be cyclists 
or swimmers in theirs. 

Walking and similar actions become by prac¬ 
tice what are called secondary-automatic actions, 
except when, as occasion requires, we wish them 
to be otherwise. There are certain body actions 
that are not acquisitions—for example, those con¬ 
nected with the respiration, the circulation of the 
blood, etc. They are called primary -automatic 
actions; but inasmuch as imagination influences 
them, they are clearly controlled by the mind. 

The organism is built up of extremely minute 
bodies called “cells.” These cells are of various 
kinds, according to whether they form muscles, 
nerves, bones, ligaments, or organs. Each cell 
contains in itself a miniature life, giving evidence 
of intrinsic intelligence. Though only of late 
years commonly acknowledged as a biological 
fact, that was long ago taught by Hindoo Yoga 
philosophers. They also taught that these cells, 
though in a manner separate entities, are amen¬ 
able to governance through one’s consciousness. 
Science has demonstrated that “every organ and 
vital process is represented in the structure of 


EFFECTIVE AUTOSUGGESTION 13 

the brain by special ‘centres’ and groups of cells 
that have a direct relation with such organs and 
processes, and through which they are controlled” 
(Clouston). 

“Unconscious” Intellectual Work.—An old 
French moralist, the Due de la Rochefoucauld, 
wrote: “It often happens that things present 
themselves to our minds more finished than we 
could make them with much labour.” He should 
have written “to our consciousness,” “mind” and 
“consciousness” not being synonymous terms. 
Consciousness may be defined as that peculiarity 
of mental states which causes us as individuals 
to be aware of them, that which has an index in 
facial expression. The definition is crude, “to be 
aware” being synonymous with “to be conscious”; 
but the fact is we cannot properly define the term 
“consciousness,” for we cannot express it in terms 
of something else, and there is nothing else of 
exactly the same class. “Mind” includes much 
more than “consciousness”; consciousness is 
merely the topmost portion of the mind. We 
should therefore distinguish between mind con¬ 
scious and mind unconscious to the individual. 


14 


CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


To have an idea and to be conscious of it are 
not the same thing. The word recalled in re¬ 
sponse to the thought “I can remember” comes 
from that part of the mind wwconscious to the 
individual. Place alongside the sentiment quoted 
from la Rochefoucauld the following statement 
from the celebrated writer Goncourt, and this 
point will become clearer. “There is a fatality 
in the first chance which suggests your idea,” said 
Goncourt. “Then there is an unknown force, a 
superior will, a sort of necessity of writing which 
command your work and guide your pen; so much 
so that sometimes the book which leaves your 
hands does not seem to have come out of yourself; 
it astonishes you, like something which was in you, 
and of which you were unconscious.” 

Dr. Milne Bramwell, the well-known hypno¬ 
tist, records as follows his own experience of 
“unconscious” mental work: “When I began to 
speak in public I wrote my lectures beforehand, 
and committed them to memory. Later I con¬ 
fined myself to jotting down the various headings, 
and of recalling mentally the different facts I 
wished to group around them. I then dismissed 


EFFECTIVE AUTOSUGGESTION 15 

the subject from my mind.” (Dr. Bramwell 
should have written “consciousness,” not “mind.”) 
“As soon as I began to speak, the lecture unrolled 
itself, as it were; sentences appeared to spring 
unbidden to my lips, and were uttered with greater 
ease and fluency than those which had formerly 
been carefully committed to memory. If the lec¬ 
tures had to be published, they were written after 
delivery; and though I was able to reproduce 
their substance, I was always conscious that I 
failed to do so in their exact form. 

“Further, after a time, either from increased 
confidence in my own powers or from the fact 
that I was overworked, the ordinary waking-self 
kicked more and more at the task demanded of 
it. In consequence of this, the secondary self 
received less carefully prepared information; but, 
despite this, it continued to do its work equally 
well. 

“Since I left college I had done no literary 
work of any kind until I began to write on hypno¬ 
tism, and my earlier efforts were difficult and 
painful. In every instance I began by collecting 
an over-abundant supply of information, and then 


16 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


had difficulty both in grouping and expressing it. 
I frequently spent hours in painful thought, with 
no more apparent result than the writing of a few 
lines; and even these often failed to satisfy me. 
Gradually, however, I came to rely more and more 
on my secondary self. When I encountered a 
difficulty, I recalled as clearly as I could the facts 
I wished to express, then put the matter on one 
side. A day or two later I often was able to 
dictate to my secretary for hours at a stretch. 
Not only so, but the work was characterised by 
marked absence of effort, and accompanied by a 
distinct feeling of detachment and even of sur¬ 
prise. The moment before a sentence was uttered 
I could not have told what it was likely to be. 
Further, the memory of what I dictated in this 
way soon sank below the level of ordinary con¬ 
sciousness. If I read it a few weeks later it 
appeared to be the work of someone else, and I 
could not trace the association of ideas which 
must necessarily have been connected with its 
execution. 

Where the aid of the secondary self had not 
been evoked, and the work had been done at the 


EFFECTIVE AUTOSUGGESTION 17 

first attempt, consciously and laboriously, I could 
always afterwards recall, more or less perfectly, 
the steps of reasoning, association, etc., which 
had been connected with my work.” 

The foregoing quotation is worthy of the 
closest attention. Probably you know the origin 
of the term “genius.” The ancients supposed 
that what was spoken by certain persons was the 
result of inspiration—that the sentiments origi¬ 
nated from a “familiar spirit” resident within. 
That “spirit” was the genius, but gradually the 
person who was its mouthpiece acquired the name. 
One can easily see how the mistake arose. Even 
now the mystery of thought must be apparent to 
all but the thoughtless. Dr. Bramwell’s account, 
however, does something towards dispelling the 
mystery of genius. We quoted it at length inas¬ 
much as it admirably expresses an experience 
more or less common to many of us, and shows 
that genius can be, at least in a measure, extem¬ 
porised. Apparent lack of intellectual ability is 
rarely other than lack of good method. Failure 
is the result of attempting to substitute “con¬ 
scious” effort for “unconscious” ease . 


18 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

To some persons the idea of training the un¬ 
conscious mind doubtless comes as a revelation. 
Nevertheless, the adduced uses of the unconscious 
mind are scarcely more wonderful than some of 
those to which it is commonly put in everyday life. 
Think of what occurs when we read aloud. We 
apprehend the appearance and the proper sound 
of each word, and the punctuation of each sen¬ 
tence ; but meanwhile we are not consciously think¬ 
ing of those matters, but of the author’s argu¬ 
ment, or imagining a scene he describes, or may 
even be following an entirely different line of 
thought. In writing, we have the forming of the 
letters and other physical duties to perform, and 
yet, if “ready” writers, may meanwhile be con¬ 
sciously arguing how best to combine euphony and 
forcefulness in the presentation of our views. A 
still more intricate matter is the playing of music. 
Two lines of compounded hieroglyphics (two 
“staves”) may have to be read at once, and the 
right hand guided to mainly attend to one stave, 
the left to the other. The various fingers have 
their work assigned, may have to move most ir¬ 
regularly as to space and time. Scores of sharps, 


EFFECTIVE AUTOSUGGESTION 19 

flats, and naturals, and other symbols, have to be 
interpreted into black and white keys, crotchets, 
quavers, rests, and other intricacies of music. In 
the case of a grand organ, the feet may have 
elaborate as well as separate duties to perform. 
The player meanwhile may be barely, if at all, 
conscious of any but the combined result of the 
performance. 

Examples of the working of the unconscious 
mind could be multiplied almost endlessly. 

Mind “Conscious” and “Unconscious” Con¬ 
trasted.—From comparison of mind that is con¬ 
scious with that which is unconscious y the follow¬ 
ing contrasts become evident: 

1. The conscious self is often possessed of a 
very unreliable memory, whereas the unconscious 
self is provided with a marvellous and impeccable 
memory, which may include the smallest events, 
the least important acts of our existence. We 
are constantly receiving mental impressions that, 
though apparently without effect, are daily, 
hourly, moulding our characters and may even¬ 
tually lead to momentous acts. Reflection re¬ 
garding the occurrences and opinions impressed 


20 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

upon one’s mind during infancy will satisfy any 
person on that point. During the delirium of 
fever, in dreams, when face to face with death, 
and under some other conditions, the detailed 
recollection of incidents apparently long for¬ 
gotten arises into consciousness. 

2. The conscious mind is apt to call in question 
the accuracy of ideas presented to it; whereas 
the unconscious mind is unqualifiedly credulous, 
believing anything told to it. Consequently, as 
the unconscious mind is responsible for the func¬ 
tioning of all our organs, a result is produced 
which may seem rather paradoxical to you: If 
the unconscious mind believes that a certain 
organ functions well or ill, or that we feel such 
and such an impression, the organ in question 
does indeed function well or ill (of course, in 
accordance with its potential ability), or we do 
feel that impression. 

The Secret of Self-Control.—You will now 
realise that to imagine personal actions or mental 
states is equivalent to giving corresponding orders 
to the unconscious self, and you will also under¬ 
stand why, if you imagine the opposite of what 


EFFECTIVE AUTOSUGGESTION 21 


you simultaneously will, the imagination is in¬ 
variably victorious. 

Like each of the elements, the imagination is 
a good servant but a bad master. 

The means by which the imagination can be 
successfully and methodically mastered and guided 
is called “suggestion,” or, in our opinion, more 
properly “autosuggestion.” We prefer the latter 
term inasmuch as, although all suggestions are 
the outcome of sensations and perceptions re¬ 
ceived through one or other of the sense-avenues, 
no suggestion can become effective until it has been 
accepted and responded to by the person’s own 
mind. 

To employ autosuggestion is not to substitute 
it for the will, but to add it to the will. But in 
this connection willing consists, not in conscious 
effort, but in surrendering oneself to conjured-up 
impressions. 

Summary of Conclusions.—The imagination of 
personal inability is sufficient in itself to make us 
incapable of doing what we desire; indeed, the 
harder we try, the more pronounced is our failure, 
for the energy put forth is wrongly localised. 


22 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

Even when we are persuaded we can perform 
what we will, effort— i.e., strain—acts as a hin¬ 
drance. 

The way to actualise our desires is to surrender 
ourselves to premeditated imagination. In other 
words, we must employ conscious autosuggestion, 
even if unknowingly. 

Between the conscious autosuggestion and its 
fulfilment much has to be accomplished by that 
part of the mind unconscious to the individual. 

The mere acceptance of a suggestion sets in 
action the mechanism favourable to its gratifica¬ 
tion. 


CHAPTER II 


THE PHYSICAL BASES OF HEALTH 

The Vis Conservatrix Naturae.—Every cause is 
two-sided. In effervescence it is not the action of, 
say, an alkali on an acid, but the action of each 
on the other, that produces the effect. There is, 
indeed, always a trinity of substances concerned, 
for the substance resulting from the chemical com¬ 
bination has to be included. Similarly, external 
suggestion (or even autosuggestion) produces no 
effect by itself; the nature of that upon which it 
plays has to be taken into account. No thera¬ 
peutic method, no educational expedient, can be 
of the slightest service unless it plays upon a 
living and responsive organism. 

From what we have already said, you will 
realise that every action, as well as every thought, 
is intimately connected with the mind. Continual 
impulses from the brain, through the nerves, are 
essential to the continuance of life in any one part. 


23 


24 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

When the body is in a healthy condition, its 
various departments work in harmony. The 
living body is not only constantly undergoing 
dilapidation through wear and tear, and simul¬ 
taneously repairing such dilapidation by the ap¬ 
propriation of suitable material; it possesses a 
power of counteracting influences prejudicial to 
health. It absorbs nutriment and expels or elimi¬ 
nates waste. During health, the balance of waste 
and repair in the body as a whole is maintained. 
This faculty of self-preservation is sometimes 
called the vis conservatrix natura, or, since it is 
the ultimate basis of all cure, the vis medicatrix 
nature. 

How Nature Heals.—Let us give you a few 
examples of how the vis medicatrix natura —i.e., 
“the medicine of nature”—acts in specific in¬ 
stances. 

Take the case of a simple cut. It may bleed 
freely for a time, but gradually the serum—the 
thin, transparent portion of the blood—forms a 
clot, or scab, over the wounded parts. This pro¬ 
tects the wound from infection that would other¬ 
wise occur through the entrance of impurities 


THE PHYSICAL BASES OF HEALTH 25 

from the air; protects it from cold (which would 
delay the healing processes) ; and tends to keep 
the wounded parts at rest. Under the cut surface 
the clot becomes organised—that is to say, new 
cells form, bloodvessels gradually extend into it, 
nerves appear, and the skin on the edges of the 
cut gradually grows inward. The remaining scab 
comes away, and the cure is complete. 

In the case of a broken bone, lymph is thrown 
out from the injured portions, and usually all that 
is required is to bring them into contact so that 
the coagulated lymph may cement the portions 
together and protect them until new bone is 
formed. Nevertheless, even if the parts are not 
brought into their proper postions, Nature can 
remedy matters to some extent, though a deform¬ 
ity will remain. 

As with wounds, so with illnesses. Nature, if 
given a fair chance, is usually capable of righting 
herself. In the case of acute illness, the elimi¬ 
nating processes work at higher pressure, and by 
temporarily depriving the patient of appetite the 
economy of energy is favoured, and thus the sys¬ 
tem rids itself more readily of impurities. 


26 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


Effects of Emotions.—The vital forces may be 
stimulated, or depressed, or even thwarted, by 
mental as well as by physical agents. 

Long ago the great German chemist, Baron 
Liebig, asserted: “Every conception, every men¬ 
tal affection, is followed by changes in the chemi¬ 
cal nature of the secreted fluids; and every 
thought, every sensation, is accompanied by a 
change in the composition of the substance of the 
brain.” 

The results of close and thorough investigations 
since conducted by Professor Elmer Gates are 
thus summed up by himself: “My experiments 
show that irascible, malevolent, and depressing 
emotions generate in the system injurious com¬ 
pounds, some of which are extremely poisonous; 
also that agreeable, happy emotions generate 
chemical compounds of nutritive value, which 
stimulate the cells to manufacture energy.” 

It has been mechanically demonstrated that 
even a passing emotion causes definite changes in 
the nerve currents in the skin. Pleasant thoughts 
have a bracing effect upon it, unpleasant thoughts 
a relaxing. More pronounced emotions notice- 


THE PHYSICAL BASES OF HEALTH 27 

ably affect the afflux of arterial blood to the sur¬ 
face. Eczema and other skin diseases are often 
of mental origin—even dropsy directly under the 
skin may be induced. 

Mental influence on bodily functions is mainly 
connected with secretions. Chemical analyses 
have demonstrated that anger changes the prop¬ 
erties of saliva to a poison dangerous to life, and 
in a nursing mother may so alter the milk as to 
poison an infant. Sir Samuel Baker informs us 
that in certain parts of Africa severe grief or 
anger is almost invariably followed by fever. 
There is a wide difference in constituency between 
ordinary perspiration and the sudden, cold exu¬ 
dation which accompanies a deep sense of guilt; 
the latter kind if brought into contact with selenic 
acid produces a characteristically pink hue. Fear 
parches the mouth, and similarly arrests the secre¬ 
tion of bile. On the thyroid gland its effect is the 
reverse; an increased quantity of secreted fluid is 
poured into the blood, and the results are palpi¬ 
tation, tremor, increased perspiration, etc. Fear 
may even cause death, as in a case of a lady who 
had swallowed a small quantity of almost harm- 


28 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

less tooth-wash labelled “Poison.” A house sur¬ 
geon of Dr. Durand gave a hundred patients 
sugared water, and then unexpectedly announced 
that it was an emetic given by mistake. Eighty 
out of the hundred patients were violently sick 
in consequence. In jaundice, diabetes, haemor¬ 
rhage from the lungs, and in a number of other 
diseased conditions, fits of anger, or fear, are 
frequently the main cause. Sir George Paget and 
others have stated their conviction that protracted 
grief or anxiety has led to cancer. The complaint 
is certainly dependent, in a measure at least, upon 
nervous and circulatory changes. 

A proverb says that “It is worry, not work, 
that kills.” Worry wastes energy, thus tends 
towards mental and physical inefficiency, and un¬ 
necessarily loads the system with waste products. 
It makes the breathing quick and superficial, un¬ 
favourably affecting the quantity of oxygen inhaled 
and of carbonic acid gas exhaled. It interferes 
with the manufacture of digestive juices, and thus 
leads to dyspepsia. It unfavourably affects the 
excretory organs, not infrequently causing diar- 


THE PHYSICAL BASES OF HEALTH 29 

rhoea. It alters the chemical condition of the 
blood and lymph. 

Intense mental anguish sometimes leads to 
insanity. 

How Mind-Power Cures.—The celebrated 
English physiologist, John Hunter, asserted: “As 
one state of the mind is capable of producing a 
disease, another state of the mind effects a cure.” 
Hope is as beneficial physically as worry is de¬ 
structive. Through its action on the nervous sys¬ 
tem the energy of the heart is increased, respira¬ 
tion is rendered fuller and freer, and the various 
organs of secretion and excretion are favourably 
affected. Indeed, it is demonstrable that whatever 
tranquillises the mind favourably affects physical 
functions. “Wearisome, unpleasant memories,” 
as Professor Elmer Gates experimentally proved, 
“weaken health and do not generate thought 
energy. Cure is accomplished in expelling these 
by another crop of wholly pleasant memories, 
which put the necessary structures of the mind in 
systematic order and teach the patient how to use 
the mental faculties.” That is why mirth is 
health-giving. 


3 o CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

Expectation of this or that physical or mental 
benefit is naturally more directly favourable for 
its realisation than is mere hope. 

Pulmonary Consumption Curable.—About the 
worst idea an ill person can have is that a disease 
from which he or she suffers is incurable. Take 
pulmonary consumption as an example. How 
many persons have you known who have recovered 
from the complaint? You will probably reply: 
“Not one!” In any case, have you ever known 
any person recover who had not an expectation 
of cure? Suppose, however, the consumptives had 
been in ignorance of the nature of their complaint, 
been treated for a supposed cold, or perhaps not 
treated at all, what would have resulted? The 
answer is readily forthcoming when one knows 
that Sir William Gairdner, late professor at 
Glasgow University, demonstrated from very 
numerous post-mortem examinations, extending 
over many years, that not less than sixty per cent 
of persons who die from diseases in no way allied 
to pulmonary consumption have had and recov¬ 
ered from it—scars on the lungs furnishing incon- 


THE PHYSICAL BASES OF HEALTH 31 

testable evidence that the disease had not only 
existed, but passed beyond the incipient stage. 
As a matter of fact, Hippocrates of Cos pro¬ 
claimed as early as 360 B.c. the curability of the 
disease. 

Autosuggestion and “Organic” Disease.—The 
statement is often made that autosuggestion can¬ 
not cure organic, but only functional, disease; but, 
if so, why does a wrong mental attitude cause it? 
These critics assume that a definite division can 
be made between functional and organic com¬ 
plaints ; but that is not so. However, take the case 
of ordinary warts. They are very decidedly or¬ 
ganic; yet they are produced by, and yield very 
readily to, autosuggestion. Swiss girls of the can¬ 
ton of Vaud for the sake of amusement both cause 
and remove warts; yet their prescriptions are 
purely fanciful. In Birmingham, a chemist has 
or had a book in which he entered the names and 
addresses of at least hundreds of persons whose 
warts he “charmed” away. Possibly the “cure” 
recommended by the elder Pliny (in his Natural 
History ), when believed in, was equally satisfac¬ 
tory for corns. After observing the flight of a 


32 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

meteor the sufferer had to pour a little vinegar on 
the hinge of a door. 

The part played by autosuggestion in the cure 
of disease can be readily understood when we 
know that the unconscious self is the grand 
director of all our functions . The organ obeys 
with docility any order transmitted to it through 
the nervous system, and either at once or little by 
little performs its functions in a normal manner. 
Take, for instance, the arrest of haemorrhage. 
The idea accepted by the unconscious, the tiny 
arterioles and veins contract to order, and the 
flow of blood ceases as surely as if adrenalin, or 
some other haemostatic, were employed. In the 
same way a fibrous tumour can be made to dis¬ 
appear. The arteries which nourish it contract in 
response to autosuggestion, and the tumour, de¬ 
prived of nourishment, dries up and is gradually 
absorbed. Tubercular lesions, varicose ulcers, 
corneal ulcers, and a host of other organic com¬ 
plaints have many times yielded before the treat¬ 
ment. Coueism has cured various cases of dia¬ 
betes, and, what is still more extraordinary, caused 
the albumen to diminish or even disappear from 


THE PHYSICAL BASES OF HEALTH 33 

the urine of certain patients. As to anaemia, ir¬ 
regularities of menstruation, eczema, and so on, 
cures can almost invariably be effected. 

A crab having lost a claw in battle causes an¬ 
other to grow. We do not for a moment contend 
or believe that with mankind the ability to grow 
new limbs is practicable; but the nature and 
variety of diseases that have yielded to autosug¬ 
gestion have been so remarkable that it is unwise 
to attempt to prescribe limits to its application. 
The special medical correspondent of The Times, 
in the issue of April 8, 1922, well remarked: “The 
stock argument against all kinds of suggestion 
treatment is that ‘it wouldn’t mend a broken bone.’ 
But might it not do so ? Broken bones are mended 
by the small cells of the bone substance which, 
working indefatigably like tiny ants, effect a ce¬ 
menting together of the broken ends. These cells 
are under nervous control; the bloodvessels which 
feed them are under nervous control. How shall 
we say that ‘Better and better’ ” (the writer is 
referring, of course, to the prescribed formula 
“Day by day, in every way, I am getting better 


34 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

and better”) “may not be heard, though only as 
a whisper, even by these industrious members of 
our body?” 

Supposed “Miracles .”—Every illness, not ex¬ 
clusively a mental one, has two aspects. To the 
physical illness a mental one comes and attaches 
itself. If the physical illness be represented by 
the coefficient I, the mental illness may have the 
coefficient i, 2, io, 20, 50, 100, or even more. 
The mental side of the complaint can in many 
cases disappear instantaneously, and if its coeffi¬ 
cient is a very high one, 100 for instance, while 
that of the physical ailment is 1, only this latter 
is left, a 101st of the total illness. What are 
called chronic complaints are often entirely com¬ 
plaints of the imagination, complaints induced by 
a cumulative process and outlasting the original 
complaint. 1 

“Nervous” Complaints and Moral Defects.— 
Neurasthenia, stammering, aversions, klepto- 


1 People have often come to me suffering, they thought, from 
some physical disability. A few seconds after, they were cured 
by me, so my observers think. In reality I simply put their 
imagination right and made them see themselves as they really 
are—healthy, strong, and normal.—E. C. 



THE PHYSICAL BASES OF HEALTH 35 

mania, certain cases of paralysis, are nothing but 
the result of unconscious autosuggestion—that is 
to say the action of the unconscious upon the phys¬ 
ical and mental being. 

The first of a series of nervous fits may have 
a physical basis, but in all probability those that 
follow are motivated by the unchecked unconscious 
mind, which suggests that the seizure will, or may, 
recur at more or less regular intervals, and will 
last about the same length of time. Autosugges¬ 
tion can successfully eradicate those harmful 
notions. 

In the same way autosuggestion can be applied 
with great advantage to moral disorders, to harm¬ 
ful cravings, to depression, to unhappiness. It 
can also become an immense factor in achievement 
of every kind on condition that we consider easy 
whatever is possible. 

The great cause of disease, mental obtusity, 
and crime is that people are accustomed to bluff 
their own imagination. 

Why All Die.—Man’s life has been aptly com¬ 
pared to a bullet shot from a gun. At first the 
bullet moves swiftly, seems (but only seems) to 


36 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

overcome the force of gravity; but gradually it 
slackens in speed, and finally falls to earth. The 
laws which govern the life of a man are just as 
fixed, though not so well known, as those which 
govern electric action or chemical change. The 
cells of which the body is composed possess, or 
are possessed by, life which will sustain them a 
given number of years. Their life may be cut 
short before they reach that period, but there is 
a time when their death would occur as a matter 
of course. Like plants we humans have periods 
of growth, maturity, and decay. The most we can 
do is to lengthen out the processes. Mons. 
Flourens concluded from observations of the 
group mammalia, of the class vertebrata, as hav¬ 
ing the closest resemblance to man, that, excluding 
all causes of premature death, the ultimate natural 
duration of life is five times the period of growth. 
Applying that rule to human life, and assuming 
twenty years as the time needed for complete 
development, the natural life of man is one hun¬ 
dred years. Some allowance should be made for 
individual modifications, but it is apparent that 
there are few persons who even nearly live their 


THE PHYSICAL BASES OF HEALTH 37 

lives out. Death usually occurs from either in¬ 
jury or preventable disease. 

Enjoyable Old Age.—The story is told of an 
old French lady who, at a great age, was asked 
by the physician whom she had consulted: “What 
would you have, madam? I cannot make you 
young again.” “I know that, doctor,” she replied. 
“What I want you to do is to help me to grow old 
a while longer” Could she be so helped? In all 
probability she could. The candle of life will 
eventually burn out, but it may be protected from 
influences which would make it burn quicker. 
Neither need your old age be characterised by 
disease and pain. To become stronger as one 
becomes older seems paradoxical, but it can be 
true. 


CHAPTER III 


SELF-TREATMENT FOR EXPONENTS 
ESPECIALLY 

Autosuggestion: Involuntary and Voluntary.— 
When a person is given coloured water or bread- 
and-sugar pills, and reposes great confidence in 
the efficacy of that “medicine,” he is certain to 
have the thought frequently in his consciousness 
that day by day he will become better and better. 
The same curative principle applied to those in¬ 
dividuals who in past centuries carried about their 
persons (and perhaps devoutly kissed from time 
to time) relics—bits of bone or clothing supposed 
to have belonged to one or other saint. Christian 
Science and Mormon cures are the outcome of 
similar unintentional autosuggestion. The efficacy 
of visits to holy wells or shrines is similarly con¬ 
nected with imagination; the “magnetic” healing 
powers ascribed to Mesmer and his disciples; and 
even some of the good effects accruing from the 
38 


SELF-TREATMENT 


39 

work of exponents of Coueism are doubtless due 
in some measure to incidental as well as acquired 
faith. Coueism, however, differs from other 
methods in that it does not sanction people’s belief 
that their cure depends on the exponent. It in¬ 
sists that every one of their thoughts, good or 
bad, becomes concrete, materialises, and becomes 
in short a reality. It does not ask for blind faith, 
but for a belief determined by the explanations 
given and the experiences caused; and (we again 
repeat) it points out that it is upon the imagina¬ 
tion, not voluntary effort, that they must rely. 

The reason that involuntary autosuggestion is 
so powerful is that there is no effort therein. To 
decide to employ autosuggestion is an act of will, 
but not an effort of will. The act of willing in 
this connection is to conjure up desirable ideas 
and then submit to them. If we try to force the 
imagination, or to force ourselves to attend to the 
idea we suggest, we defeat ourselves. 

Many of you, no doubt, will be hoping to help 
other persons by suggestion, and will have no op¬ 
portunity of first being shown how to employ auto¬ 
suggestion for your own betterment. We shall 


4 o CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

therefore describe in detail how to treat your¬ 
selves. (You will teach this method to others, 
but will first prepare them by the utilisation of the 
special exercises we shall give later.) We shall 
tell you exactly how to act in order to become 
good operators. Helping others will give you 
great self-confidence, and, by seeing the result of 
suggestion in others, you will therefrom derive 
confidence in its efficacy in treating yourselves. 
Novices in autosuggestion are apt to get contra¬ 
dictory results. The cause is “trying hard.” 
When that point is made clear, further attempts 
are attended by progress. Autosuggestion is an 
instrument which you have to learn to use, just 
as you would any other instrument. An excellent 
gun in inexperienced hands gives only wretched 
results, but the more skilled the same hands be¬ 
come, the more easily they place the bullet in the 
target. 

Relaxation Exercises.—No undertaking, phys¬ 
ical or mental, can be properly performed unless 
the person concerned has at his back a store of 
energy; and any energy wrongly directed, not 
merely infers a waste of that energy, it actually 


SELF-TREATMENT 


4i 


hinders or prevents the attainment of one’s aim. 

Many persons are so constantly and largely 
draining away from their reservoirs of energy 
that they are, or tend to become, nervous wrecks. 
Few persons use their energy economically. 

Exercises specially designed to produce show- 
muscles waste energy and tend to detract from 
agility. Similarly, strained attention detracts 
from mental mobility. 

Muscular relaxation is equivalent to muscular 
rest. Muscular tension is incompatible with men¬ 
tal mobility. 

The following exercises (designed to ensure 
the mastery of relaxation) have particular advan¬ 
tages :— 

1. They teach how to economise energy. 

2. They help to establish economisation of 
energy as a habit—physically and mentally. 

3. They increase one’s available powers, 
through the saving of energy. 

4. They make the body more receptive to 
curative suggestion, inasmuch as they take away 
obstacles. 


42 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

5. They lead to ease and promptitude of move¬ 
ment and thought. 

We would emphasise the fact, in passing, that 
it is better, far better, to establish the habit of 
energy-economisation in childhood, than to have 
to eradicate the contrary habit later in life. 

Exercise 1.—Lie down; if on a bed, preferably 
put aside the pillow. Raise the right leg, then 
let it fall by its own weight. Do not put it down, 
nor delay the fall in any way. Repeat with the 
left leg, then with the right again. Continue 
movements a few times. 

Exercise 2.—Same as Exercise 1, but with 
arms instead of legs. 

Exercise 3.—Raise head, keep it suspended a 
moment, then allow it to fall. Repeat a few 
times. 

Exercise 4.—Allow the chin to fall easily. A 
help in this is afforded by imagining that in 
reality it is (as Goldsmith insisted was the case 
with him) the upper jaw that moves. 

Exercise 5.—Picture, in turn, the legs, the 
arms, the head, and the trunk as non-existent. 

No effort should be made in attempting to 


SELF-TREATMENT 43 

master the relaxation exercises. Take hold of 
a book at one end, and then support the opposite 
end by means of a table—forming a kind of 
bridge. Take the hand away, and the book 
will fall. When you raise an arm in the above 
exercises it is the imagination that causes the 
movement. Therefore, to get the most com¬ 
plete relaxation, imagine the support to be taken 
away from the part hitherto (so to speak) 
propped up. 

When you have acquired the art of relax¬ 
ing the body your mind will have been so trained 
as to most readily employ autosuggestion treat' 
ment. 

The “Meditation” of Genius.—As soon as 
effort is taken away from attention the range of 
available ideas is increased, there being a more 
ready connection between the conscious and the 
unconscious minds. 

The condition thus obtained is identical with 
that which is characteristic of genius. We will 
give merely a few illustrative examples. Socrates 
is said to have frequently remained a whole day 
and night in the same attitude, absorbed in 


44 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

meditation. Archimedes was meditating in his 
bath when he discovered his famous “hydrostatic 
principle,” and in the same mental condition he 
appeared entirely unclothed in public. Dante 
went one day to witness a public procession, 
and, with that object in view, he entered a 
bookseller’s shop. Picking up a book he began 
to read, and subsequently became so engrossed 
with ideas passing in his mind that upon his 
return he declared he had neither seen nor heard 
anything of the show. Another Italian poet, 
Marino, was so absorbed in a composition that 
he was insensible for some time to the burning 
of a leg. Monsieur Thomas would sometimes 
sit for hours against a hedge whilst engaged in 
close thought. From time to time he would 
raise a hand and sniff at imaginary snuff—the 
real having been disposed of long before. 
Ampere would walk behind a cab working out 
problems on its back and not notice that his 
blackboard was moving. 

Such instances as those to which we have 
referred show the ultimate proficiency that may 
be reached in the attainment of an artificial 


SELF-TREATMENT 


45 


mental solitude. In time a marked proficiency 
in the art may be procured by almost anyone. 
The ideal condition in which to practise auto¬ 
suggestion is that in which there is no effort and 
yet sufficient alertness to keep one’s attention 
on the task in hand. Experiments conducted 
by Abramowsky, head of the laboratory in the 
Warsaw Psychological Institute, have mechani¬ 
cally demonstrated that the ability to induce such 
a condition readily in oneself is in direct ratio 
to the energy manifested throughout life. 

One of the most continuous thinkers within 
memory was the great philosopher Herbert 
Spencer. One day “George Eliot” (then Miss 
Evans) having remarked to him that she was 
surprised that the amount of thinking he had 
done had not furrowed his brow, he replied: 
“I suppose it is because I am never puzzled.” 
Miss Evans retorted: “Oh! that’s the most 
arrogant thing I have ever heard uttered.” But 
the allegation was denied by Spencer. He 
went on to explain that the reason he was never 
puzzled was that he never put his mind at the 
mercy of a subject. He did not sit down to 


46 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

puzzle out the answer to a problem, but was satis¬ 
fied to take the idea into his mind and return to it 
from time to time until, “little by little, in un¬ 
obtrusive ways, without conscious intention or 
appreciable effort, there would grow up a co¬ 
herent and organised theory.” We would have 
you take a hint from Herbert Spencer. Don’t 
make hard work of autosuggestion. 

The most favourable times for habitual auto¬ 
suggestion are immediately after getting into 
bed at night and immediately after awaking in 
the morning. However, any opportunity of 
solitude may be seized for the purpose. For in¬ 
stance, you may seat yourself in an arm-chair, 
close your eyes to avoid any distraction, and with 
the body as relaxed as practicable, give your¬ 
self the suggestions. 

Verbal Suggestion Not Indispensable.—“Cir¬ 
cumstances alter cases.” The chief element in 
the suggestion cure is the suggestion itself. By 
preference this should be spoken out aloud, or, 
when that is impracticable, whispered, or the 
movements of the mouth performed—even )if 
noiselessly. Occasionally such a course is im- 


SELF-TREATMENT 


47 

practicable— e.g. y with certain stammerers and 
stutterers. In any one of such cases the patient 
should merely think the sentences prescribed. 
Provided he does so, firmly believing that he is 
doing himself good, and mentally tells himself 
that he is really feeling better, the necessity for 
any set formula lapses. 

Self-Treatment.—The first thing you have to 
do before practising methodical autosuggestion 
is to decide exactly what you want to bring about 
by means of it. If you do not first have the ad¬ 
vantage of the assistance of an operator we pro¬ 
pose that, to begin with, you should carefully 
“take stock” of your requirements and go over 
the various points in giving one or two treatments 
in order that the suggestions may be properly 
impressed upon your mind. Among other things, 
you should not fail to assure yourself that an 
occasional relapse or failure will not discourage 
you, that your general trend will be in the right 
direction. 

Time was when the founder of Coueism recom¬ 
mended persons to repeat to themselves a number 
of times a set formula— e.g. y “Day by day, in 


48 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

every way, I am getting better and better”— 
then to follow with specific suggestions applicable 
to individual needs, dwelling momentarily 
upon each suggestion. The formula remained 
unaltered; the details varied as occasion re¬ 
quired. 

Various circumstances caused him to place 
greater reliance upon the set formula. He 
found that if the attention lingers on the phrase 
“in every way,” the unconscious looks out, as it 
were, any weak point (just as it may search for 
a required word) and does its best to put it 
right. Consequently, he no longer insists upon 
the detailing of particulars during self-treat¬ 
ment. 

You should have a string containing twenty 
knots, and at every repetition of the formula pass 
from knot to knot. Say the formula like people 
are accustomed to say their Litanies—piously 
and absolutely without effort. Here we are re¬ 
minded of Sir Isaac Newton, of whom one of 
his acquaintances stated: “He would sometimes 
be silent and thoughtful, and look all the while 
as if he were saying his prayers.” 


SELF-TREATMENT 


49 


The repetition of the same words will force 
you to think them, and when you think them they 
become true for you and transform themselves 
into reality. If the mental condition is medita¬ 
tive it is advisable to dwell upon them; but 
should the condition be alert, as when one is suf¬ 
fering from pain, the suggestion should be re¬ 
peated rapidly. Every time in the course of the 
day or night when you feel any distress, physical 
or mental, immediately affirm to yourself that 
you will not consciously contribute to it and that 
you are going to make it disappear; then isolate 
yourself as much as possible, shut your eyes, and 
passing a hand over your forehead if it is some¬ 
thing mental, or over the part which is painful 
if it is something physical, repeat extremely 
quickly, either aloud or in a whisper: “It is 
going, it is going,” and so on, as long as may 
be necessary. With a little practice the physical 
or mental distress will have vanished in from 
twenty to twenty-five seconds at most. Begin 
again whenever necessary. Should you fail, de¬ 
pend upon it you are making some error in the 
mode of application. Most likely you make 


5 o CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

effort; but it may be that you do not repeat “It is 
going” quickly enough. You should be so intent 
(but easily intent) upon the repetition of that 
suggestion that no time is left for the contrary 
idea to get a footing in consciousness. 


CHAPTER IV 

THE EXPONENT’S ATTITUDE AND 
MANNER 

Imagination and Sympathy.—Some of the 
most successful exponents of Coueism are women. 
That is because, as a class, women are more 
sympathetic than men, consequently in affairs of 
the heart are capable of acting with greater tact. 
As imagination is the basis of genuine sympathy, 
in this respect it seems to be more conspicuously 
possessed, or at least developed, in the female 
sex than in the male. 

The utilisation of imagination is as important 
to the operator as it is to the so-called “subject.” 
It enables the former to enter to a considerable 
extent into the feelings of others, thus realising 
what attitudes of mind need uprooting and what 
engrafting. The tact so well exercised by women 
is often ascribed to instinct, intuition; but you 
see that trained imagination is the real origin. 


51 


52 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

We cannot too strongly impress upon you 
the importance of so cultivating imagination, 
and thereby sympathy, that a true “rapport” will 
be established between yourself and those you 
undertake to treat. The fact of feeling exactly 
what help the subject needs, and of being in a 
condition to supply it, will cause you to act with 
confidence, and that confidence will be enhanced 
by success. It will not make you arrogant, but 
enthusiastic. Your subject will put confidence in 
you, feeling that you have not only sympathy, but 
the knowledge and skill required to help him or 
her, and that you will use those means effectually. 
A passive sympathy is an incomplete one; if the 
sympathy be complete, it infallibly leads to action. 

Personality and Manner.—Much is written 
with regard to the attainment of a “magnetic” 
personality. Superficiality is opposed to it. 
Allow us to express the opinion that without the 
cultivation of sympathy the chief ingredient in its 
composition is omitted. An unimaginative per¬ 
son can never be truly magnetic. He or she may, 
through upbringing, act on the whole justly, but 
is never warm-hearted. You do not feel it “does 


ATTITUDE AND MANNER 


53 

you good” to come into personal contact with a 
cold-hearted individual. 

Dean Swift asserted that he is the best man¬ 
nered who makes the least number of others un¬ 
comfortable in the place where he is. We would 
rather say that he is the best mannered who makes 
the greatest number of others comfortable in the 
place where he is. Good manners should be ac¬ 
tive, should be productive of good feeling. 

There is an etiquette that may be learned from 
books, and so far as that is other than mere cus¬ 
tom, it is founded upon an analysis of conduct 
that springs from the heart. Every real gentle¬ 
man is a “nature’s gentleman,” whatever else he 
may be. A person may scrupulously conform to 
surface manners, but lack the discrimination to 
perceive how truly impolite many of them may be 
because ill-placed. All good manners spring 
from the heart, from sympathy, from imagination. 

What Language Is.—Sympathy will give you 
command of one kind of language, the language of 
tones, looks, and gestures, the language of emo¬ 
tions, of nature. As an adequate helper and 
guide to those who seek, or to whom you proffer, 


54 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

your assistance, you will have to convey more than 
states of feeling, you will have to convey ideas; 
and, for the purpose of conveying ideas, mankind 
has formulated “words” which may be communi¬ 
cated orally, by written or printed symbols, and 
by actions—such as deaf-and-dumb language. In 
fact, language comprises any and every means by 
which what passes in one mind may be made 
known to another. An individual commonly em¬ 
ploys various forms of language simultaneously, 
and it often occurs that the language of nature 
gives the lie to the spoken words. 

But here a difficulty arises. To express what 
they mean persons of the same nationality often 
employ differing words; indeed, they often em¬ 
ploy words to which they have never attached 
any definite meaning, and often these serve as but¬ 
tresses behind which their ignorance is ensconced. 
Indeed, writers who seem to differ in opinions ex¬ 
pressed, judged by the words they employ, may 
really agree; and others who seem to agree, do 
so in terms only. Any amount of care in the 
selection and arrangement of words will not en¬ 
sure our being invariably understood; but that 


ATTITUDE AND MANNER 


55 

fact is no adequate excuse for carelessness, but 
should be an incentive to the opposite attitude of 
mind. Do not employ many technical terms, and 
carefully explain what you mean by those you do 
employ. 

We strongly recommend the practice, when 
alone, of giving suggestions to various types of 
(imaginary) persons. You must not appear a 
novice. Here, as elsewhere, it is possible to act 
in such a way that the method, though excellent 
in itself, may not be tested, and its advantages 
consequently remain unperceived. You should 
lay by a good store of artifices to be drawn upon 
without hesitation when required. 

Elocutionary Hints.—In oral language, em¬ 
phasis, inflection, and tone colour should* corre¬ 
spond, and always do when the voice sounds “nat¬ 
ural.” Attempts to teach elocution by means of 
a study of inflections and suchlike are always fal¬ 
lacious. The inflections present in ordinary 
speech reveal the attitude of the speaker’s mind. 
The force of what we say is dependent upon the 
mental condition immediately preceding and ac¬ 
companying speech. The painter has a mental 


56 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

image, then materialises it—makes his stroke on 
his canvas. Similarly, the speaker should never 
be “in a hurry.” 

Pauses are as requisite to the speaker as to 
the auditor; the mind requires time to formulate, 
as well as to receive, an idea. During the pauses 
the speaker’s attention should not drift: the imag¬ 
ination should be at work, and there should be 
a gathering together of forces, a preparation for 
what is to follow. 

Pause, then speak whilst the idea is dominant 
in consciousness. Do not make an effort to find 
suitable words, or they will evade you. Let the 
required idea arise into consciousness from the 
mind beneath. It will do that, if not prevented, 
in accordance with the law of association. As 
the idea becomes clearly outlined, becomes defi¬ 
nite, corresponding words will arise. Many per¬ 
sons intentionally speak louder in order to 
heighten an effect. They therein err; they should 
accentuate the feeling. The mood should give 
rise to the idea, and the idea to the actions of 
speech—much as the vivid imagination of kick¬ 
ing leads to the corresponding action. Dramatic 


ATTITUDE AND MANNER 


57 


power is the result of mass of feeling, not of con¬ 
scious attempt at loudness. Soft tone may be 
very forceful, may show by its intensity how much 
lies behind suppressed. 

Sometimes the appearance of a required mood 
may be hastened by “meeting it halfway.” Turn 
up the corners of your mouth and simultaneously 
endeavour to think a sad thought; or turn them 
down and attempt a bright one. Both tasks are 
equally impracticable. Consistently, think a 
smile (you see imagination stands first) and si¬ 
multaneously a brighter mental attitude will ap¬ 
pear. 

Gesture is all but essential to forceful speak¬ 
ing. If a vivacious person attempts to put re¬ 
straint upon such action he thereby detracts from 
forcefulness—which, please, carefully distinguish 
from loudness. 

Probably the most eloquent language is that 
of the eye. 

Assume the “I can” frame of mind when com¬ 
mencing a demonstration, and purposely return 
to the suggestion from time to time throughout. 
Conviction is as necessary to a suggestionist as to 


5 8 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

a patient. It is this conviction, this faith, which 
enables him to obtain satisfactory results where 
all other means have failed. If the operator 
does not show that he possesses confidence in the 
method he undertakes to expound, how can he 
reasonably expect his patients to possess it? 

Self-Reliance v. Arrogance.—Do not refer to 
any special skill you may possibly possess in em¬ 
ploying the method; rather refer to the method 
itself—you are the instrument. Arrogance and 
egotism court, and invariably beget, opposition. 
The most arrogant persons are commonly the 
most mistaken. Appear positive but unassum¬ 
ing. The only difference between ourselves as 
the authors of this course, and what you yourself 
will become, is that we are conveying our ideas 
through writing, whereas you will probably con¬ 
vey your directions in person. The giver of sug¬ 
gestions should not look upon himself, nor be 
looked upon, as a master who gives orders, but 
a friend, a guide, who leads the patient step by 
step on the road to health and happiness. As all 
the suggestions are given in the interest of the 
patient, the unconscious of the latter asks nothing 


ATTITUDE AND MANNER 59 

better than to assimilate them and transform them 
into autosuggestions. When this has been done 
the cure is obtained more or less rapidly accord¬ 
ing to circumstances. 

Never fail to assure or remind patients that 
the effect of suggestion is cumulative. Tf they say 
they feel no better remark that the treatment is 
not guess-work, not haphazard medication, its re¬ 
sults are certain, all sane minds being amenable 
to suggestion, though final results occur quicker 
in some persons than in others. 

Finally, we would say: Aim at getting the right 
mental pictures yourself; it will then be a simple 
matter to arouse them in others. Express and 
you will impress. 


CHAPTER V 

TEN ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS 

Why Coueism Succeeds.—Though there are 
many patients to whom Coueism is a sort of 
bread-and-sugar pill, patients who are benefited 
and cured through what the physiologist Carpen¬ 
ter called “expectant attention,” the vast major¬ 
ity of cures are effected through voluntary com¬ 
pliance with the exponent’s directions, and the 
persons so cured may have been, though open- 
minded, up to the time of treatment utterly un¬ 
convinced regarding the possibility of gaining any 
benefit therefrom. 

In our opinion Coueism owes its pre-eminent 
success to two distinctive features—viz.: 

i. Before any curative or specifically educa¬ 
tional suggestions are given the person treated is 
made to realise how readily and effectively his or 
her mind-power can be utilised; and so enthusi¬ 
asm is aroused. 


60 


ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS 61 


2. The directions for the private use of pa¬ 
tients are readily complied with, and consequently 
perseverance is forthcoming. 

The Aim of the Experiments.—The ten ex¬ 
periments we are about to describe will enlighten 
you as to the best way of preparing, and in part 
dealing with, the especial needs of various types 
of patients. 

The first four experiments are particularly in¬ 
tended to convince any person with whom they 
are employed of three facts—viz.: 

1. That every dominant idea ( i.e., every idea 
at the forefront of consciousness) becomes true 
to the individual, tends to transform itself into 
action; 

2. That when an individual assumes that he 
cannot do what he would, the harder he tries the 
more complete is the failure; and 

3. That when the “knack” of effective think¬ 
ing is acquired all ideas are equally easy of as¬ 
sumption 

In some instances a little more than ordinary 
time is required to prepare adequately the pa¬ 
tient’s mind for the practice of autosuggestion. 


62 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


The extra pains, however, are well compensated 
for by the final results. Only such individuals 
as are incapable, through extreme mental ob- 
tusity—or unwilling, through bigotry—to com¬ 
ply with instructions are incapable of eventually 
making use of autosuggestion. Fortunately these 
two classes comprise less than three per cent of 
the whole community. 

How to Commence an Exposition.—Before 
proceeding to the experiments you should en¬ 
lighten the patient’s mind a little regarding 
the nature and applicability of autosuggestion. 
Part of the address should be somewhat as 
follows: 

“If you have come here expecting me to cure 
you, you have made a mistake. I have never 
cured anyone; I merely teach people how to cure 
themselves. I have taught many people how to 
cure themselves, and that is what I am going to 
teach you. The experiments in which we shall 
take part are certain to succeed although they 
may appear to fail. They show that your 
thought is always realised in yourself. Thus, if 
when I ask you to think: ‘I cannot take my hands 


ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS 63 

apart,’ you think instead: ‘I can take them apart,’ 
you can assuredly do so. You may think you 
have convicted me of error, but in reality you 
will have done just the opposite, will have dem¬ 
onstrated the working of autosuggestion.” 

This method of introducing the preparatory 
experiments is not merely educative, it causes the 
subject to attribute to his or her own unskilful¬ 
ness any failure that may occur to begin with, 
and therefore does not undermine faith in the 
method or the operator. 

The First Experiment (Preparatory).—Ask 
the subject to stand upright, with the body as stiff 
as an iron bar, the feet close together from toe 
to heel, while keeping the ankles flexible as if they 
were well oiled hinges; tell him to make himself 
like a plank with hinges at its base, which is bal¬ 
anced on the ground. Make him notice that if 
one pushes the plank slightly either way it falls 
as a mass without any resistance in the direction 
in which it is pushed; tell him that you are going 
to pull him back by the shoulders and he must let 
himself fall without the slightest resistance into 
your arms, turning on his ankles as on hinges— 


64 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

that is to say, keeping the feet fixed on the ground. 
Then pull him back by the shoulders. 

Should the subject not keep the body rigid, 
draw attention to the fact that balance of the body 
is kept by weight, not mere muscular power. 
Ask him, or her, to rise to the toes, then slowly 
lower the heels and when they touch the floor 
be careful to retain the position the body then 
has, not to bend the trunk slightly backward. 
The proper poise of the body is assumed when, 
with knees unbent, one can begin to rise to the 
toes without first bringing the body further for¬ 
ward. In that position, the most favourable for 
the vigorous functioning of the vital organs, the 
chest is advanced and the abdomen slightly re¬ 
tracted, and were it possible to drop a plumbline 
perpendicularly from the middle of the top of the 
head it would fall midway between the “balls’’ of 
the feet. The majority of persons make the line 
of gravity fall to somewhere by the heels, conse¬ 
quently to retain their balance have to protrude 
their abdomens—a procedure very unfavourable 
to health. Test that matter by making the sub¬ 
ject put one hand on the chest, the other on the 


ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS 65 

abdomen, whilst holding the breath and moving 
the upper part of the body backward and forward. 
Illustrate the same matter by requesting the sub¬ 
ject to stand sideways by a wall, an arm and one 
leg against it, then attempt to retain the position 
of the arm whilst lifting the outer leg. Point out 
that in the pulling backward test no attempt by 
bending the body must be made to retain the 
balance. When the subject has been made to 
grasp the principle of balance the experiment suc¬ 
ceeds. 

Second Experiment.—Begin by explaining to 
the subject that in order to demonstrate the action 
of the imagination you are going to ask him 
in a moment to think “I am falling backward, 
I am falling backward. . . Tell him that he 
must centre his attention on that idea, not re¬ 
flect or wonder whether he is going to fall or not, 
nor think that if he falls he may hurt himself, 
etc., nor fall back purposely to please you, but 
that if he really feels something impelling him to 
fall backwards he must not resist but obey the 
impulse- And that you will catch him so that 
he will not be hurt through completely falling. 


66 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


Then ask your subject to raise his head high and 
to shut his eyes. Usually stand a little behind 
the subject, the left leg forward and the right 
leg well behind him. Toward the close of the 
experiment quickly draw back the left leg so as 
to prevent the subject from hitting the ground. 
Put your right fist or palm against the back of the 
head just above the neck, and ask him to rest his 
head against the hand. Next put your left hand 
on your subject’s forehead and gently and slowly 
press his head against your right hand. Then 
say: “Now think ‘I am falling backward, I am 
falling backward,’ etc., etc., and indeed you—are 
—falling—back—ward,” etc. At the same time 
slide the left hand lightly backward to the left 
temple above the ear, and remove very slowly 
but with a continuous movement the right fist. 
(The slower the movement of the right hand to 
begin with the better as a rule. Most persons 
tend to make the movement too quick.) The 
subject is immediately felt to make a slight move¬ 
ment backwards, and either to stop himself from 
falling or else to fall completely. In the first 
case, tell him that he has resisted, and that he did 


ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS 67 

not think just that he was falling, but that he 
might hurt himself if he did fall. That is true, 
for if he had not thought the latter he would have 
fallen like a block. Before repeating the experi¬ 
ment insist that the subject should not attempt to 
analyse his sensations. 

Third Experiment.—Your subject should stand 
facing you, the body stiff, the ankles flexible, and 
the feet together and parallel. Raise your arms 
and rest one hand very lightly on each side of 
his head just above his ears. Take care not to 
cause any discomfort by undue pressure. Next 
look fixedly, without moving the eyelids, at 
the root of his nose and tell him to think: 
“I am falling forward, I am falling for¬ 
ward . . and repeat to him, stressing the 
syllables: “You—are—fall—ing—for—ward— 
you—are—fall—ing—for—ward.” Then very 
lightly draw your hands forward against the side 
of your subject’s head and take a step backward 
with your left foot. Any subject who has pre¬ 
viously performed his part correctly in the first 
two experiments will sway forward. You, of 
course, will preserve him from injury. 


68 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


Fourth Experiment.—Ask the subject to ex¬ 
tend his arms in front, the elbows unbent and 
rigid, and the hands tightly clasped. Look at 
him as before and keep your hands on his as 
though to squeeze them together still more 
tightly. Tell him to think: “I cannot unclasp 
my fingers,” that you are going to count “One, 
two, three,” and that when you say “Three” he 
is to try to separate his hands whilst thinking “I 
cannot do it,” and that he will find the action im¬ 
practicable. Then count to “three” slowly and 
immediately add, detaching the syllables: “You— 
can’t—do—it.” If the subject comply with the 
directions there is present the compounded idea: 
“In spite of wanting to take my hands apart I 
can't ”—a very similar if not identical “state of 
mind” to that manifested by the “hopeless” 
drunkard and other perverts. The greater the 
efforts made by the subject to separate his hands, 
the tighter the fingers become clasped. In a few 
moments say to him: “Now think: *1 can separate 
my hands,’ ” and as a rule the result occurs in a 
moment. Sometimes, however, the idea of dis¬ 
ability takes such a hold on the subject’s mind 


ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS 69 

that there is some delay, accompanied by desper¬ 
ate struggling. In the latter instance you should 
take hold of his hands, press them together 
closely, and say calmly but emphatically: “Now 
stop pulling. I shall again count ‘three,’ and then 
your hands will unclasp immediately. One—two 
—three. All right!” The hands will then sepa¬ 
rate at once. Of course there are subjects (ap¬ 
parently not more than one per cent at most) 
whose hands do not become clasped. They are 
usually persons who do not realise that, though 
the operator can help in the establishment of the 
required idea, the hand-fastening itself is due to 
response by the subject’s mind— i.e., to auto sug¬ 
gestion. 

This experiment we use more extensively than 
any other. It goes right to the centre of the 
matter, shows the power of imagination over ef¬ 
forts of will, and the additionally paralysing 
effect of willing against what one imagines. 

Fifth Experiment.—Ask the subject to put a 
leg a little forward, then rest his weight upon 
and stiffen it. Take hold of one of his hands. 
Tell him to say to himself: “My leg is stiff; I 


70 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

can’t bend it—I can’t bend it.” Then say very 
emphatically: “You—cannot—bend—it. It is 
getting stiller and stiller. You will walk stiff- 
legged, will walk stiff-legged,” then immediately 
pull him forward, saying quickly meanwhile: 
“You are stiff-legged.” After he has walked 
stiff-legged a number of steps, stop and say: 
“Now say to yourself: ‘I can bend my leg.’” 
Vary this experiment by stiffening an arm or pre¬ 
venting a clenched list from opening. 

This experiment is very useful for the rectifica¬ 
tion of hysterical paralysis. Here is an example 
out of hundreds of similar ones: A woman whose 
right hand was closed, the lingers tightly clenched, 
and the wrist bent inwards, attended the Nancy 
clinic for treatment. The trouble was of several 
years’ duration, and massage, electricity, and a 
host of other treatments had proved useless. On 
this occasion she was asked to clench the unaf¬ 
fected hand, to stiffly bend the wrist, and to think: 
“I want to open my fist but I can’t.” She com¬ 
plied, and, of course, the fist remained clenched. 
“Think: ‘I can open it,’ ” was the next direction, 
and, upon compliance, the fist was unclenched. 


ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS 71 

She was thereupon asked to give her attention 
to the right hand and to think: “I want to open 
it but I can’t.” “Now think and say: ‘I can open 
it,’ ” was the final instruction. The patient com¬ 
plied, and the long-closed hand opened and the 
wrist became relaxed. To the uninitiated the ef¬ 
fect seems wonderful. What is more wonderful 
is that a mode of treatment so simple could have 
remained so long undiscovered. 

Sixth Experiment.—Stand in front of the sub¬ 
ject, look at him steadily as before, and gently 
press upon his “Adam’s apple” ( i.e the front of 
the larynx), then say: “Think: ‘I cannot say my 
name.’ ” After a few moments declare em¬ 
phatically : “You—cannot—say—your—name. 
Try, but you cannot.” If the subject has fol¬ 
lowed the instructions and given his full attention 
to the ideas suggested, he will make ineffectual, 
but no other, attempts to pronounce his name. 
After the person has unsuccessfully made a few 
attempts, say: “Now think: ‘I can.’ ” His com¬ 
pliance will bring the inhibition to an end. 

This experiment gives the cue to how to effec- 


72 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

tively deal with certain cases of loss of voice. 
Speech defects are sometimes due to malforma¬ 
tion, disease, or injury, either of the vocal organs 
or of the brain centres particularly associated 
therewith—situated in the left half of the brain 
in right-handed persons and in the right half in 
left-handed. Such gravely organic cases are 
sometimes incurable. Those due to emotional 
shock or diffidence, and unaccompanied by any 
recognisable changes in the brain, are curable. 
Functional speech disorder may extend even to 
mutism, which is inability even to whisper; those 
who can whisper but not use the voice suffer from 
aphonia . In other, and more common, cases the 
articulating mechanism is that mainly affected, re¬ 
sulting in stammering, stuttering, tremulousness, 
or hesitation. The words “stammering” and 
“stuttering” are not rightly interchangeable. In 
stammering, one or other part of the mechanism 
of speech is spasmodically closed, and the patient 
struggles to open it; in stuttering, a syllable is 
repeated in spite of the sufferer’s desire to the 
contrary. 

There are many persons who, in consequence 


ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS 73 

of a temporary genuine hoarseness due to con¬ 
gestion of the larynx, imagine they are perma¬ 
nently incapacitated vocally. They are readily 
curable by properly applied autosuggestion. 

At all times the imagination is a prime factor 
in the production of beautiful vocal tone. The 
congenitally deaf if taught to speak invariably 
have noticeably unmusical voices. 

Seventh Experiment.—Ask your subject to 
place one of his hands upon one of yours, your 
left. Next, slightly extend the right hand, all 
clenched except the forefinger, in front of the 
subject’s face. Then say very emphatically: “I 
want you to look upon this forefinger as hot, very 
hot, so hot that when it touches your hand it will 
burn you.” When the subject has complied, bring 
the forefinger downward and touch his hand, first 
slightly, then allowing it to linger longer on his 
hand. When convinced that the subject has felt 
a burning sensation remove the finger and say: 
“Now think of this finger as most soothing,” and 
gently rub the place on the hand where the burn¬ 
ing sensation was experienced. Next ask the sub¬ 
ject to imagine the finger as frozen, and lead him 


74 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

to consequently induce on his hand a sensation 
of cold. 

Eighth Experiment.—This is an outgrowth 
from the seventh, which shows that sensations 
can be readily induced by suggestion. You now 
proceed to induce analgesia (painlessness) and 
anesthesia (loss of sensation) in a part. To do 
so, pass without interval from the seventh ex¬ 
periment. Say: “I shall now ask you to think of 
this hand as becoming numbed. The feeling will 
start at the ends of the fingers and gradually 
progress upward.” Put your hand at the ends 
of the fingers, and then move it upward, saying 
meanwhile: “The numb feeling is spreading up¬ 
ward.” Then pinch the hand very slightly and 
say “Capital!” That will give the subject, who 
imagines the pinch was considerable though it did 
not feel so, confidence, and the severity of the 
pinch can be readily increased. With many per¬ 
sons it is possible actually to wound the flesh with¬ 
out any feeling, much less pain, being experienced. 

When this experiment fails, fear is the in¬ 
variable cause. If the subject follows directions 
the desired result always ensues. There are, 


ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS 75 

however, some persons who, when undergoing an 
operation, die directly the knife touches them, even 
though they have been chloroformed. They are 
victims of an involuntary autosuggestion given to 
the unconscious mind. A celebrated French sur¬ 
geon, whenever people died as described, would 
throw down his knife with a gesture of disgust 
and the exclamation “The coward.” 

Ninth Experiment.—This is one readily per¬ 
formed and almost invariably successful. Ask the 
subject to think intently of one of his forefingers. 
Directly he commences to do so, he will become 
conscious of sensations therein, and the fingers will 
become warm. 

The explanation is that the attention, located 
upon any part of the organism, tends to cause a 
flow thither of nervous energy and then blood and 
lymph. (“ Dirigation” the flow is called.) This 
is the explanation of blushing which not infre¬ 
quently occurs over a woman’s breasts during an 
examination by a medical man—the tiny arteries 
near the surface dilate through involuntary atten¬ 
tion to the parts affected 

By means of the artifice described any part of 


76 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

the organism can be supplied with blood, or de¬ 
pleted of it, when required— e.g. y cold feet can 
be warmed. The desired result will not follow 
effortful attention, unless the head be the part 
selected, when effort will tend to cause a sym¬ 
pathetic flow thither. 

Imagination, as will be realised from the sev¬ 
enth experiment, may counteract dirigation of the 
blood, just as it may aid it. 

Tenth Experiment.—Ask the patient to test 
his own pulse. Then say: “I want to show you 
how easy it is to vary the pulse-rate. Count the 
throbs. Now say to yourself: ‘Quicker, quicker,’ 
and you will see that if you calmly assume that 
what you wish to happen will happen, your pulse 
will beat quicker.” When that result has been 
obtained remark: “Now say: ‘Slower, slower,’ 
and your pulse will beat slower.” Lastly assert: 
“Now say: ‘Miss one,’ and your pulse will become 
intermittent just as you decided.” 

From the last four experiments you will realise 
how readily persons ill with fevers can be assisted 
by the suggestions of coolness and comfort, and 
how their pulses, and the pulses of nervous per- 


ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS 77 

sons, can be regulated. Always point out and 
insist that it is the patient’s own mind that is 
responsible for the appearance of the various 
phenomena, and that he is really his own physi¬ 
cian; also, that all he is doing is acquiring a form 
of physical and mental culture—a form the exist¬ 
ence of which is rarely even recognised. 


CHAPTER VI 
INCLUSIVE SUGGESTIONS 

The Advantages of Inclusive Suggestions.— 
When the effective co-operation of the patient has 
been assured by means of one or more of the 
experiments described in our last chapter, and it 
may also be that he or she has been benefited or 
cured by the application of some artifice, the next 
step is the giving of inclusive suggestions. 

The formula, “Day by day, in every way, I am 
getting better and better,” may be thus para¬ 
phrased: “Day by day, I shall approach nearer 
and nearer to my physical and mental idea ” 
Now the exponent of autosuggestion should en¬ 
sure that, as far as practicable, the patient’s per¬ 
sonal ideals will more and more approach per¬ 
fection. 

“To be perfect we all should desire; 

Though perfection not one may acquire.” 

78 


INCLUSIVE SUGGESTIONS 


79 

The inclusive suggestions, therefore, are in¬ 
structive. They inform the patient as to a judi¬ 
cious line of conduct, and, in so far as he or she 
is willing to comply, inspire him or her with the 
necessary enthusiasm to ensure perseverance with 
the procedures advocated. 

Further, although it is the patient’s own sug¬ 
gestion, subsequent to the suggestion of the ex¬ 
ponent, that is essential to betterment, the skilful 
exponent “knows the ropes” and helps his pupils 
to walk them unaided. The meditative condition 
is trained and developed, as well as utilised, by 
the inclusive-suggestion treatment. 

Lastly, any relapse is guarded against. The 
patient’s enthusiasm is increased, especially when 
the treatment is collective. 

The Arrangement of the Inclusive Sugges¬ 
tions.—It will be seen that the inclusive sugges¬ 
tions are arranged under twelve sub-headings. 
For memorising, please to note carefully their 
logical order. The comments, too, should be 
closely observed, for it is apt to be by the due 
observance of apparently little niceties that one 
exponent far excels another. 


8o CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


Suggestions. 

1. Preparation .—“Sit down 
and close your eyes. I shall 
not attempt to put you to 
sleep, for that is unnecessary. 
I ask you to close your eyes 
because I do not wish your 
attention to wander to exter¬ 
nal objects. 

“Now tell yourself earnestly 
that all the words I am about 
to utter will fix themselves in 
your mind and there remain 
printed, engraved, and en¬ 
crusted, so that, without in¬ 
tention or even knowledge on 
your part, but perfectly un¬ 
consciously, your organism 
and yourself will have to act 
in accordance with them.” 

2. Digestion. — “I assure 
you, in the first place, that 
every day, three times a day, 
in the morning, at midday, 
and in the evening, at the 
usual mealtimes, you will be 
hungry; that is to say, you 
will experience that pleasant 
sensation which gives rise to 
the expression: ‘Oh, how I 
should enjoy some food!’ 
You will then eat and enjoy 
your food, but will avoid over¬ 
loading your stomach. You 
will know when you have 


Comments. 

The suggestionist should 
begin in an easy, colloquial 
tone. To assume an air of 
mystery is a serious mistake 
tending to make the patient 
apprehensive or suspicious. 


Here the operator should 
become more impressive, but 
not heavy in manner. 


INCLUSIVE SUGGESTIONS 


81 


eaten enough, for something 
within you will seem to tell 
you so. When that occurs 
you will immediately refrain 
from eating. 

“You will be careful to mas¬ 
ticate every morsel of food 
until you have converted it 
into a soft paste, and then, but 
not until then, it will be swal¬ 
lowed so gradually and gently 
that your attention will not 
be drawn to the fact. It will 
seem to disappear from your 
mouth of its own accord. As 
a consequence your stomach 
and other lower organs of di¬ 
gestion will deal with it read¬ 
ily, causing neither pain nor 
inconvenience of any kind. 
Your organism will perfectly 
assimilate what you eat, and 
will transform it into blood, 
muscle, strength, and energy 
—in a word, life.” 

3. Excretion .—“Since diges¬ 
tion will have been properly 
performed, there will be no 
irregularity as regards ex¬ 
cretion. Every morning, on 
rising, you will feel that your 
bowels are ready to evacuate. 
Without having recourse to 
any laxative medicine, or 
other artificial contrivance, 


In certain cases there should 
be introduced here a speci¬ 
fication of the kind of food 
which will be chosen or pre¬ 
ferred, and a suggestion given 
that the patient will readily 
refrain from certain dietetic 
articles formerly liked but 
harmful in tendency. This 
comment applies to liquids as 
well as solids. 


Sometimes it is advisable to 
add that a “laxative” drug is 
merely one to which the sys¬ 
tem objects and consequently 
expels by means of bowel-ca¬ 
tarrh, which fact is sufficient 
to show that “opening medi¬ 
cines” are needless. 


82 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


your motions will be regular 
and exactly adequate.” 

4. Sleep .—“Every night, as 
soon as you desire, you will 
fall asleep, and continue to 
sleep until the time you wish 
to awaken on the following 
morning. Your sleep will be 
profound and tranquil, en¬ 
tirely free from nightmares. 
On awaking you will always 
feel well, cheerful, and thor¬ 
oughly fit.” 

5. Mental Outlook .—“If you 
have sometimes suffered from 
depression, been gloomy and 
prone to worry and look on 
the dark side of things, hence¬ 
forward you will be free from 
such troubles. Instead of be¬ 
ing worried and depressed, 
and full of evil forebodings, 
you will be cheerful, happy 
perhaps without any special 
reason, just as you have been 
depressed without any partic¬ 
ular reason. Further, even if 
you have serious cause for 
unhappiness and melancholy, 
you will rise above the feel¬ 
ing. 

“If you have been subject 
to occasional fits of impatience 
or anger, you will henceforth 
have nothing of the kind. In- 


INCLUSIVE SUGGESTIONS 


83 


stead, you will be always pa¬ 
tient, and the occurrences 
which formerly worried, an¬ 
noyed, or irritated you will 
henceforward leave you per¬ 
fectly unmoved. 

“If at times you have been 
haunted by evil or unwhole¬ 
some ideas, by apprehensions, 
fears, aversions, temptations, 
or grudges against other per¬ 
sons, I assure you that your 
imagination will gradually 
lose sight of those feelings; 
they will fade away as though 
into a distant cloud, just as 
dreams commonly vanish 
from consciousness. In future 
you will welcome what would 
formerly have been tempta¬ 
tion. It will enable you to 
more completely realise the 
beneficial change that has 
taken place in your mental¬ 
ity.” 

6 . Organic Disorder .—“To 
this I add that should there 
be any lesion—that is to say, 
any structural morbid change 
—in the heart, lungs, or other 
organ of the body, that organ 
will nevertheless perform its 
special duty henceforward as 
well as it is capable of doing, 
the lesion will get better and 


84 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


better day by day and will 
soon be entirely healed.” 

7. Functional Disorder. — 
“Should any organ, though its 
structure is not actually dis¬ 
eased, be weak or function 
abnormally, that organ will 
get stronger and function bet¬ 
ter and better from day to 
day, and quite soon it will 
have become strong. In fact, 
as far as is possible, all your 
organs, all parts of your sys¬ 
tem, now commence to per¬ 
form their duties efficiently— 
the heart beats in a normal 
way, and the circulation of the 
blood takes place as it should.” 


We repeat here that one 
may cure an affected organ 
without having ever been con¬ 
sciously aware of its being 
out of order. Under the in¬ 
fluence of the comprehensive 
suggestions that every organ 
will be restored to health, the 
unconscious mind figuratively 
“takes stock” of the various 
bodily parts, and acts in ac¬ 
cordance with the result of 
the investigation. Of course, 
in many instances there are 
present weaknesses and ail¬ 
ments of which the patient re¬ 
mains throughout unaware. 

To the general suggestions 
should here be added such as 
apply to the particular case, 
or cases, under treatment. If 
there be a class, it is advis¬ 
able, where practicable, to 
move from spot to spot, ac¬ 
cording to the position of the 
patient to whom the extra sug¬ 
gestions are meant to apply, in 
order to emphasise the fact 
that his or her particular need 
is being “catered for.” 


8. Self-Confidence .—“I must 
also add—and this point is ex¬ 
tremely important—that if 


INCLUSIVE SUGGESTIONS 


85 


hitherto you have lacked con¬ 
fidence in yourself, that self¬ 
distrust will disappear by 
degrees and give place to 
self-confidence—not a foolish 
conceit, but a result of the 
knowledge and experience re¬ 
garding the force of incal¬ 
culable power resident in each 
one of us. It is absolutely 
necessary for every human be¬ 
ing to have this confidence. 
Without it in degree one can 
accomplish nothing; with it 
one can accomplish anything 
within the domain of possi¬ 
bility. In future, then, you 
will have self-confidence, and 
rest assured that you are ca¬ 
pable of accomplishing per¬ 
fectly well whatever you wish 
to do —on condition that the 
aim is reasonable —and what¬ 
ever it is your duty to do.” 

9. Ease. — “Consequently, 
when you desire to do some¬ 
thing reasonable, or when you 
have a duty to perform, al¬ 
ways reflect that it is easy, 
and make the words ‘difficult,’ 
‘impossible,’ and the expres¬ 
sions ‘I cannot, it is stronger 
than I,’ ‘I cannot prevent my¬ 
self from,’ and such like, dis- 


86 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


appear from your vocabulary. 
Whatever you have to do, 
say: ‘It is easy, and I can do 
it.’ By looking upon the 
thing as easy it becomes so 
for you, although it might 
seem difficult to others. You 
will do it quickly and well, 
and without fatigue, because 
you will do it without effort; 
whereas, had you considered 
it difficult or impossible, it 
would have become so for 
you, simply because you had 
thought it so.” 

io. Summary. — “In brief, 
from every point of view, 
physical as well as mental, 
you are going to experience 
excellent health, far better 
health than you have hitherto 
enjoyed. Indeed, day by day, 
in every way, you will become 
better and better” 


All the suggestions should 
be made confidently, but not 
with unnecessary loudness, 
and, although the essential 
words should be emphasised, 
the effect should be, on the 
whole, slightly monotonous 
and distinctly soothing. As a 
consequence, some of the pa¬ 
tients will have fallen asleep, 
and practically all will be in 


INCLUSIVE SUGGESTIONS 87 


ix. Dissipation of the 
Placid Condition .—“Now I 
am going to count up to three, 
and when I say ‘three’ you 
will open your eyes and leave 
the passive condition in which 
you now are. You will pass 
out of it readily, you will not 
feel tired or drowsy, but, on 
the contrary, strong, alert, fit, 
full of life; furthermore, you 
will feel bright and cheerful, 
well in every respect. One, 
two, three.” 


12. Final Instructions. — 
“Before you go away, I want 
to impress upon you the truth 
that you carry within yourself 
the instrument by which you 
can bring about your own 
cure. I am, as it were, merely 
a professor teaching you to use 


a more or less drowsy con¬ 
dition. 

During the recital of the 
suggestions opposite, the ex¬ 
ponent’s voice and manner 
should become progressively 
animated. The exhilaration 
will be communicated to the 
patients. 

At the word “three” the 
subject opens his or her eyes, 
smiles, and bears on the face 
an expression of well-being 
and contentment. 

Occasionally cure occurs 
immediately, but more usually 
only relief is thus experienced, 
and repetitions of treatment 
are essential to dispense 
entirely with the pain, depres¬ 
sion, or other trouble. In 
every case repetition of the 
suggestions is advisable, but 
gradually longer and longer 
periods should be allowed to 
elapse between the treatments, 
until the cure is complete. 


88 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


this instrument, and your co¬ 
operation is essential. 

“Every morning before ris¬ 
ing, and every evening as soon 
as you are in bed, shut your 
eyes and, without trying to 
fix your attention on what you 
are saying, repeat in a soft, 
droning voice, but loud enough 
to hear yourself, while count¬ 
ing mechanically on a string 
furnished with twenty knots, 
the following phrase: 'Day 
by day, in every vuay, I am 
getting better and better / It 
is not necessary to formulate 
any particular demand, as the 
words ‘in every way’ apply to 
everything. 

“Make this autosuggestion 
with confidence, with faith, 
with the certainty of obtain¬ 
ing what you want. The 
greater the conviction, the 
greater and the more rapid 
will be the results obtained.” 



CHAPTER VII 


COUEISM AND DIET 
UTOSUGGESTION, properly conducted, 



1 jL aims at uprooting harmful ideas from the 
mind, and planting and cultivating in their stead 
beneficial ideas, also at establishing harmony be¬ 
tween the mental processes. By these means the 
bodily functions are affected favourably, also the 
person’s conduct altered—a point often lost sight 
of. Think “success” instead of “failure,” and the 
mode of conduct is thereby altered. Think that 
the lungs function better and breathing becomes 
fuller and more regular. When a means of im¬ 
provement is pointed out the favourable mental 
attitude leads the affected person to persevere in 
it, and pleasurably. That principle applies to 
health matters as much as to others. We have 
never maintained that autosuggestion enables a 
person to adhere with impunity to any number of 
bad habits. If that were practicable no skilful 


9 o CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

autosuggestionist could be poisoned—for exam¬ 
ple. Nevertheless, autosuggestion can reduce to 
a minimum the bad consequences of physical 
wrong-doing. In all adults imagination is always 
present, either in favour of or against disease— 
even when treatment is administered without the 
patient’s knowledge. 

Adaptability.—People sometimes ask us 
whether we believe in special diet. Ask a cattle- 
breeder whether he believes in it, and he will smile 
at the naivete of the question. He knows that 
he might as well attempt to “make a silk purse 
out of a sow’s ear” as good animals out of poor 
food. Man being an animal, the same principle 
is bound to apply in a measure to him; but his 
mind enables him, we have concluded, to do far 
more than any of the lower animals to adapt him¬ 
self to circumstances. A German proverb declares 
that “A man is what he eats.” To a certain ex¬ 
tent that is doubtless true, but it should be 
remembered that the constituents of a body are 
constantly changing by fermentation, excretion, 
respiration, etc. The rattlesnake feeds exclu¬ 
sively on grass, which contains no poison, and yet 


COUEISM AND DIET 91 

the system of the rattlesnake manufactures in its 
“laboratory” a deadly poison. Similarly, a per¬ 
son may eat the purest food, his dietary may be 
balanced to a nicety, and nevertheless his attitude 
of mind may be so unfavourable that the nature 
of his food is rendered of non-effect, or may even 
be turned into poison. And apparently the con¬ 
verse is to some extent true. A favourable men¬ 
tal attitude can enable the system to do its best 
with the materials supplied, though sometimes 
scarcely likely to suffice—viewed chemically. It 
is also demonstrable that the system can and does 
exercise a power of selecting one harmful sub¬ 
stance instead of another for excretion, leaving 
the less harmful substances to be dealt with later, 
perhaps temporarily tolerated—inasmuch as other 
more important work is on hand. 

Dangers of “Dieting.”—There is a great dan¬ 
ger commonly attending a rigid dietetic regimen. 
A person may study constituents of numerous 
articles of diet, and the effects that they are sup¬ 
posed to have upon the human organism; he may 
even institute a series of personal experiments in 
order to test how far these rules apply to himself; 


92 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

and yet the result may be very wide of the mark. 
The circumstances under which the foods are 
taken are bound to vary in a number of ways. 
The mental factor is likely to be entirely, or 
almost entirely overlooked. All the descriptions 
read are so many influences at work to affect the 
result. The consequence is that a person may eat 
a meal which, potentially, his system is capable 
of putting to good use, but the person by analys¬ 
ing may start his unconscious mind upon the work 
of displaying certain unfavourable symptoms. 

Training the Digestive Organs.—A more sen¬ 
sible mode of procedure would seem to be a series 
of experiments, favoured by autosuggestion, in 
order to be able to enumerate a big and ever grow¬ 
ing list of food substances, alone or in combina¬ 
tion, that one can deal with effectively. 

A proverb declares that “What is one man’s 
meat is another man’s poison.” Whilst one man 
is over-susceptible to certain possible ill effects of 
this or that “food poison,” another may be con¬ 
spicuously immune. Such susceptibility and im¬ 
munity are doubtless due in part to physical pecu¬ 
liarities, but the mental element (which sometimes 


COUEISM AND DIET 93 

can be shown to entirely account for the idiosyn¬ 
crasy) should not be ignored. The ideal method 
is that of suggesting to your unconscious that it 
will crave for only what it can adequately deal 
with, and (so that attention to regimen may not 
be inconvenient) that it will enable you, gradually, 
to digest and assimilate more and more kinds of 
food, and also excrete or eliminate what is un¬ 
needed. We do not ask you necessarily to repeat 
that suggestion; ponder upon it in such a way that 
it will be “absorbed,” as it were, by the uncon¬ 
scious, so that when you employ the daily formula, 
“in every way,” the unconscious will understand 
that those points of improvement are included. 

Food Constituents.—Some time ago the 
founder of Coueism was asked whether he main¬ 
tained that a sufferer from pulmonary consump¬ 
tion could recover through the instrumentality of 
autosuggestion and yet meanwhile be living en¬ 
tirely on white bread, margarine, and tea. He 
replied: “Hardly that!” 

We do not want to make anyone slavishly 
adhere to a special diet, believing as we do that 
the digestive system is likely to be debilitated by 


94 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

such a procedure—variety being advisable for the 
sake of adequately supplying all of the materials 
needed by the body. At the same time, we feel 
a few definite remarks regarding the constituents 
of food will be useful as a preventive of serious 
mistakes in diet. The mind can effect a cure, but 
it must have the materials requisite—just as a 
builder who builds a house cannot proceed without 
materials. Mind and housebuilder each can use 
makeshifts, but the extent to which such substi¬ 
tution can be carried is by no means unlimited. 

The most suitable diet for man depends upon 
a variety of circumstances, climate and personal 
vigour being the most pronounced. The Eskimo 
needs in his climate food very different from that 
required by an inhabitant of the West Indies. A 
navvy should in general have different diet from 
a clerk. 

Dietetic Essentials.—The chemical elements of 
which the body is composed are nitrogen, car¬ 
bon, hydrogen, oxygen, lime, potash, soda, sul¬ 
phur, iron, phosphorus, magnesium, chlorine, etc. 
Nevertheless these substances require organising 
before they are capable of being assimilated—in 


COUEISM AND DIET 95 

fact, in general, with the exception of air and 
water, the elements have to pass through the vege¬ 
table world before they can become parts of our 
organism. Contrary to what had been concluded 
by some investigators, the fact is demonstrable 
that iworganic lime, iron, silica, and soda, for in¬ 
stance, in certain forms, are capable of being 
assimilated by the organism. Nevertheless, if the 
various known elements of milk be put together 
chemically such a mixture is incapable of sustain¬ 
ing life. The explanation is closely bound up with 
the question of vitamines, enigmatical substances 
of which much has been written of late years. 
The presence of vitamines in food is apparently 
of the greatest importance. Their proportion to 
the bulk of food is infinitesimal, but upon their 
presence in greater or less degree the extent of 
potential growth and vigour largely depends. 

Vitamines are present in most foods when in 
a natural state, but cooking seems to abolish or 
render them inert. This is one of the reasons 
that raw fruit and greenstuff are so valuable. 
Cooking food for a short time at a high tempera¬ 
ture is better than for a long time with less heat. 


96 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

Tinned and preserved meats give no protection 
from scurvy, but raw blood seems to be as 
efficacious as the juice of the lemon or lime. 
Frozen meat is preferable to tinned, but infe¬ 
rior to fresh. 

Proteids and Mineral Matters.—The principal 
groups of food elements required for body-build- 
ing purposes are termed “proteids. The main 
element in proteids is nitrogen, hence proteids are 
often referred to as nitrogenous—a rather mis¬ 
leading term, however, as it refers also to meat- 
extracts, which are devoid of proteids. In addi¬ 
tion to proteid, certain minerals are tissue builders. 
Proteid enters into the composition of muscle, 
bone, nerves, secretions, etc. But lime is required 
for the bones and teeth, and also to retain suffi¬ 
cient thickness of the blood—but for lime we 
should bleed to death. Silica is present in the 
teeth, nails, and hair; phosphorus in the brain, 
nerves, and bone; iron, potash, and soda help to 
make healthy tissue and aid in the elimination of 
impurities. In England it is customary to boil 
vegetables in much water which is afterwards 
thrown away. The French cook vegetables con- 


COUEISM AND DIET 97 

servatively, using the juices and waters for 
“stocks.” Vegetables are rich in mineral matters. 

Foods particularly rich in proteid are meat, 
eggs, nuts, and dried peas, beans, and lentils. It 
is also present in considerable quantities in the 
cereals. 

Not only does proteid form lean flesh, it pro¬ 
vides the organism with fat, heat, and energy. 
It also acts under certain circumstances as a tonic, 
especially to the digestive organs, and it also aids 
(through the ammonia liberated at the end of its 
assimilation) in the elimination of certain acids. 
On the other hand, an excess of proteid may lead 
to clogging of the system and the formation of 
unfavourable chemical compounds. 

Guesses about Proteid.—The amount of pro¬ 
teid needed by a person cannot be ascertained 
from his weight and height. He may have a 
bony, big frame; a muscular body; or be merely 
fat and flabby. His system may be in a clogged 
condition, or be pure-blooded. Some persons need 
four ounces of proteid per day, with others one 
ounce is ample. There is idiosyncrasy to be con¬ 
sidered too. Not only the amount, but the kind 


98 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

of proteid affects the result. Some persons can 
deal better than can others with the proteid in¬ 
gested. Again, an ounce of proteid from one 
source may be equivalent to two ounces from an¬ 
other; indeed, the proteid may not even be put to 
use, but the reverse by some. 

Hydrocarbons.—These include all edible fats 
or oils, and are, as their name implies, a combi¬ 
nation of hydrogen and carbon. A diet deficient 
in hydrocarbons tends to produce weakness and 
lack of vitality. As with machinery, oil, up to a 
certain point, lessens friction. It eases the move¬ 
ments of the bowels and gives tone to the nervous 
system. Partaken in excess, oil, especially when 
previously subjected to heat, tends to upset the 
liver and produce obesity. 

Carbohydrates. —These are composed, though 
in different proportions, of the same elemental 
substances as hydrocarbons. The carbohydrates 
(sugars and starches) supply heat and energy. 
They are not, however, entirely interchangeable 
with hydrocarbons, do not “go so far.” The first 
step in the digestion of starch is its impregnation 
with ptyalin , a substance present in saliva except 


COUEISM AND DIET 99 

in earliest infancy and extreme old age. The com¬ 
bination of ptyalin and starch produces sugar. 
This part of digestion should be encouraged by 
thorough mastication. The elimination of starch 
from one’s diet (from any motive of body-econ¬ 
omy) is unwise, both because it leaves an impor¬ 
tant process unperformed and inasmuch as sugar 
in excess tends to ferment in the system and may 
thus lead to a variety of complaints, especially 
catarrh. The amount of carbohydrates required 
depends in a measure upon the amount of proteid 
used—other things being equal, the larger the 
amount of proteid the less the carbohydrates 
needed. 

Food Acids.—These consist mainly of slightly 
stimulating acids found in all fruits, and in some 
vegetables and cereals. By means of them the 
blood is prevented from becoming too alkaline. 
They are also cleansing and cooling agents. An 
excess of fruit can cause over-acidity of the blood 
and a blotchy complexion. 

We strongly advise everyone to partake of 
some raw food daily. If fruit does not suit, have 
raw vegetable (carrot, turnip, for example—but 


ioo CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

not potato) or green stuff such as lettuce and 
cresses, or their juices. 

Water.—All foods in a raw state contain 
water, and it is possible to retain excellent health 
upon an entirely solid diet provided fruit and 
green stuff figure largely in it. The amount of 
water needed mainly depends upon the constitu¬ 
ents of the diet. If much salt be taken thirst 
will ensue in order that the system may be cleared 
of the excess. Sugar, much fat, hot sauces, and 
so on, similarly increase the need of water. The 
best times for drinking are first thing in the morn¬ 
ing, last thing at night, and about an hour before 
a meal. 

Special Cautions.—More than three meals per 
day are not advisable. Leave five hours at least 
between meals, so as to allow the process of diges¬ 
tion to be carried out thoroughly. 

We strongly advocate the thorough chewing of 
the food, and heartily concur with the advice of 
Horace Fletcher that no food should be swallowed 
until it has assumed a semi-liquid form. The food 
is thus reduced to a more suitable condition for 
stomach and intestinal digestion. The work of 


COUEISM AND DIET ioi 

mastication is good for the teeth and increases 
the secretion of saliva. The greater the quantity 
of saliva secreted, the greater is the amount of 
gastric juice too. By “fletcherising” food (that 
is, by reducing it to a semi-liquid before swallow¬ 
ing) the amount of needed food is said to be 
reduced by half, the amount of proteid by two- 
thirds. 

Do not make the mistake of imagining that the 
more the intake of food the greater the amount 
assimilated. You can put so much fuel on a fire 
that you interfere with the burning, or may even 
entirely put out the fire. Clogging of machinery 
with dirt tends to stop its working. It often 
occurs that by lessening the number of daily meals 
the body-weight is increased. Hippocrates as¬ 
serted, nearly 2,300 years ago: “When the body 
is impure and loaded with humours the more you 
nourish it the more you hurt it.” That is to say, 
abstinence from food is sometimes advisable in 
order to allow of the elimination of impurity. 
Nature teaches us this lesson when, in acute ill¬ 
nesses, she takes away appetite. 

It is a fallacy to conclude that because in adults 


102 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

the amount of food needed for body-restoration 
and output of energy roughly corresponds, on an 
average, to one ounce of solid for every ten 
pounds of body-weight, there is no need of “bal¬ 
last.” When the stomach is, as in most persons, 
unnaturally distended it works better when it has 
a liberal supply of food to squeeze and otherwise 
work upon. Cresses and other green stuff, fruit 
in moderation, and a certain quantity of oil, form 
good ballast. What is not used by the system 
(and they are all valuable articles of diet) serves 
to promote regularity in bowel-evacuation. 


CHAPTER VIII 


COUEISM, PHYSICAL CULTURE, AND 
REMEDIAL EXERCISE 

I T seems to have been assumed, in certain quar¬ 
ters, that Coueism is opposed to physical 
culture. That assumption is exactly contrary to 
fact; indeed, methodical autosuggestion, as used in 
therapy, is itself physical culture, and physical 
culture as singularly valuable to the attainment of 
health and vigour, as it is commonly unrecognised 
and therefore unemployed. 

Harmful “Physical Culture. ,, —Though we are 
not opposed to any system of genuine physical 
culture, we do condemn the attempt to turn per¬ 
sons, independent of the nature of their work, 
into masses of muscle—often cumbersome, and 
always a severe drain, for upkeep, upon the bodily 
resources. Further, certain systems tend to in¬ 
duce a habit of muscular hyper-tension, and, co- 
relatively, a tendency to intellectual immobility 


103 


io 4 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

distinctly unfavourable from the mental stand¬ 
point. Dumb-bell exercise, unless used in con¬ 
junction with an alert brain, is definitely harmful. 
The weight of the dumb-bell being the same 
throughout the exercise, and the muscular fibres 
not all beginning to contract at the same moment, 
the central portion of the muscle becomes “knotty” 
in consequence of its disproportionate develop¬ 
ment. 

Rational Exercise.—The founder of Coueism 
is not a devotee of any one system of physical 
culture; indeed, his time is so taken up in other 
ways that he personally prefers to get the effects 
of fresh air, the physical advantages of varied 
movements, and the unalloyed pleasure of a con¬ 
genial hobby, by getting up early and attend¬ 
ing to his own kitchen garden. On the other 
hand, his collaborator is an enthusiastic voice- 
culturist. 

Exercise of some nature is essential to health, 
but it should be directed more especially to the 
strengthening of the vital organs. That is why 
singers and wind-instrumentalists are as a class 


COUEISM—PHYSICAL CULTURE 105 

particularly long-lived and healthy. Their art, 
properly pursued, necessitates not merely full 
breathing, but compression of breath. That com¬ 
pression, applied by drawing in the abdomen after 
the breath has been taken, strengthens the muscles 
of the abdomen, additionally expands the chest, 
and opens up by inflation millions of air cells 
that would otherwise remain almost or entirely 
unused. 

As regards muscular movements, people in 
general think too much about the size of muscles 
and ignore the quality. Quickness as well as 
strength is needed, and the capacity of relaxation 
usually calls for more attention than does con¬ 
traction. 

Muscular relaxation, it is important to under¬ 
stand, though a state of complete muscular rest, 
does not consist in mere flaccidity. When a limb 
is at rest its muscles pull equally in contrary direc¬ 
tions, “tonicity” is present. When any one muscle 
is contracted another, opposed to it, is stretched. 
All that is requisite is a nice balance of muscular 
power, and such movements as will alternately 
flush the muscles with blood, and then allow of 


io6 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


the waste matters being liberated. These ends 
are achieved, respectively, by alternate contraction 
and relaxation of the muscles. The proper mo¬ 
bility of joints is assured by the movements of the 
attached muscles. 

Utilisation of Mind Power.—Whatever exer¬ 
cises you elect to use we want to impress upon you 
the value, during their performance, of mind- 
power. The seventh experiment for the prepara¬ 
tions of persons properly to apply autosuggestion 
shows the action of easy attention and imagination 
upon the circulation of the blood. Attempts to 
strengthen the body by force of will are neces¬ 
sarily self-defeating. Imagine, alternately, full 
contraction and relaxation of the particular mus¬ 
cle you wish to develop, but isolate your actions 
as far as possible. If you strain you bring unre¬ 
quired muscles into action, and thus interfere with 
mobility of movement. 

Ten minutes per day of methodical exercise, 
performed as we recommend, is usually ample. 

Exercise for the Bedridden.—In the case of 
persons confined to their beds and unable to 
actively help themselves, but to whom exercise 


COUEISM—PHYSICAL CULTURE 107 

would be beneficial, we recommend the adoption 
of combined massage and autosuggestion, inde¬ 
pendent of the ordinary formula and other devices 
already mentioned. 

The following method of application is equally 
easy and efficacious. 

Take a leg and press slowly and decidedly 
upwards from ankle to groin, then quickly and 
lightly stroke the leg downward. Repeat several 
times; then apply the same kind of treatment 
to the other leg; then to each arm in turn. Next 
massage from the groin to the heart and back; 
from the back of each shoulder to the correspond¬ 
ing nipple; and so on—always remembering that 
the pressure should be decided and comparatively 
slow when moving towards the heart, but light 
and comparatively quick when in the contrary 
direction. The patient should follow in thought, 
but without effort, the movements of the oper¬ 
ator’s hands. As strength returns the patient 
may perform the movements himself, carefully 
avoiding fatigue. 

Alternate elevation and relaxation of each of 
the limbs in turn, also bending at the elbows and 


io8 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


knees, should be employed when the bodily 
condition permits; and, under medical sanction, 
exercises in respiration should be performed, 
and are likely to prove most valuable curative 
agents. 

Pure Air.—Although we realise that there is 
such a thing as too great fear of impure air (the 
imagination being sometimes to blame almost 
entirely for bad effects supposed to be due to 
being in a close room), we are sure that the notion 
that night air is injurious is responsible for vastly 
more ill-health. Supposing the air when inhaled 
be pure, after it has performed its work in the 
system it will have become so impure that to 
render it again fit for breathing there is required 
the addition to it of ten times the quantity of 
pure air. Take into account that a normal adult 
breathes about eighteen times per minute and you 
can hardly fail to perceive the need of free venti¬ 
lation. Most people stay at least one-third of 
their lives in their bedrooms. To be constantly 
rebreathing the same or nearly the same air 
during that time is certain to have serious ill- 
effects. 


COUEISM—PHYSICAL CULTURE 109 

Whenever you practise breathing exercises aim 
at obtaining the purest air possible. If you re¬ 
move all your clothes before exercising you will 
thereby favour the action of the skin, which is 
really a third lung. 

The Nose.—Except when using the voice, and 
even then whenever practicable, breathe through 
the nose. The nose warms, moistens, and filters 
the air, consequently protects the lungs. The 
sticky mucus catches dust, insects, and disease 
germs, and so prevents them from entering the 
chest. It is a good germicide. 

To form and confirm the habit of breathing 
through the nose make a point of sleeping with 
the chin slightly drawn towards the chest. 

Except when the passage is blocked, breathing 
through the nose is a simple matter. If you think 
it difficult you partially close the valves in the nose 
and contract the throat. Always recollect that 
the reason that air enters the lungs in breathing 
is that the cavity of the chest being enlarged 
through the expanding of the chest walls, the out¬ 
side air exercising a pressure of fifteen pounds to 
the square inch rushes in through the apertures, 


no CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

to equalise the pressures inside and out. A feel¬ 
ing of tightness in the nose or throat during 
breathing (except in some diseases) is unneces¬ 
sary and wrong. 

Physiological and Psychological Equivalents. 
—Every psychological condition has its physio¬ 
logical equivalent. Just as we cannot truly smile 
when melancholy, nor truly express melancholy 
when happy, bodily attitude is an index to the 
state of mind. Further, respiration is closely 
connected with the mental condition. Here are 
a few facts which we ask you to verify by your 
own observation: When in doubt a person holds 
the breath. Thinking in succession of different 
colours, even, causes variation in the duration of 
the breaths. Passions and emotions which unduly 
excite the brain are accompanied by quickened, 
superficial respiration, so that body tissue is 
wasted; and, if such states of the mind happen 
often in an individual, wrinkling of the face and 
a tendency to more general emaciation occur. 
The fearful man breathes with difficulty, experi¬ 
encing “tightness” about the chest. On the other 
hand, a placid mental state tends to make the 


COUEISM—PHYSICAL CULTURE hi 

breathing deep and full. Profound thinkers com¬ 
monly breathe more deeply than do superficial 
persons. When following upon despondency an 
element of pleasant but not excessive emotion is 
experienced, respiration is deepened and slightly 
quickened—to much the same extent as by tem¬ 
perate exercise. The explanation, therefore, is 
patent of the cures of pulmonary consumption 
through methodical autosuggestion; the mental 
state righted, the patient’s respiration simulta¬ 
neously alters, and, with persistence, complete 
cure is often achieved. 

Warnings.—During certain severe chest com¬ 
plaints breathing exercises are liable to lead to 
disastrous results, and, therefore, whenever there 
is any doubt as to the wisdom of the performance 
of such exercises, the advice of a conscientious and 
capable medical man will be a safeguard. In any 
case, you should carefully avoid contracting the 
habit of so-called “abdominal” breathing— i.e., 
breathing characterised by a protrusion of the 
lower part of the abdomen. If such respiration 
is habitual to you get rid of it without delay. 
Ideal breathing is characterised by a slightly flat- 


112 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


tened abdomen and great horizontal expansion of 
the chest. We need hardly say that such clothing 
as interferes with the proper functioning of the 
lungs is definitely harmful. 


CHAPTER IX 

COUEISM AND SUCCESS 

Rational Altruism.—Everyone wishes to be 
happy, yet few attain their end. As a great 
philosopher once said, he who does not find ease 
in himself seeks for it in vain elsewhere. The 
altruist finds joy without seeking it; the egoist 
seeks joy without finding it. The highest form 
of altruism is optimism; the highest form of 
egoism is pessimism. 

We are all members of the community; each 
has duties to perform for the sake of himself, of 
the community at large, and of posterity. 

The basis of true altruism is the fitting of one¬ 
self for the performance of one’s other duties. 
Without attention to the perfecting of one’s health 
and mental capacities one is necessarily more or 
less handicapped. 

Whatever one obtains from the community at 


11 4 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

large one should honestly and honourably earn by 
labour well performed. 

By example and by precept one should en¬ 
deavour to leave the world better than one 
found it. 

Everyone should be ambitious, but a laudable 
ambition is of an altruistic character. Inciden¬ 
tally, personal advantages are very likely to 
accrue from the pursuit of one’s ambitions. One 
should, however, look upon those advantages as 
further means of increasing one’s usefulness. We 
are not referring to the giving of alms in partic¬ 
ular. Indiscriminate attempts at exercising char¬ 
ity are often directly harmful to those one would 
benefit. Help your neighbour to help himself. 
By attention to that maxim you will be doing your 
best towards making him a useful member of 
society. 

Visualise Ambitions.—The first step towards 
success is to realise as far as possible just where 
you stand in the universe. If you were playing 
at cards you would endeavour to arrange the 
game in accordance with your “hand.” An ex¬ 
cellent player with a poor hand may accomplish 


COUEISM AND SUCCESS 115 

much, but he would be far more certain to succeed 
were his hand a good one. If possible, choose 
your work where your main aptitudes lie; en¬ 
deavour not to be “a square peg in a round 
hole.” 

An old Italian adage assures us: “Real skill 
and proper assurance united are invincible.” 

Think out the causes of your failures and your 
successes. Don’t fret over the failures; endeavour 
to learn all you can from them. Endeavour, too, 
to better your successes. 

“Be worthy in your own eyes,” advised the 
Stoic philosopher Seneca. A moment ago you had 
aims; were they worthy or were they unworthy? 
Unless they were such as would fit the high char¬ 
acter you have assumed throw them aside for 
ever, do not court vain regrets. If, on the other 
hand, the aims are worthy, proceed carefully to 
form a plan to carry them out as effectively as 
you conceive possible. If the summit of your 
ambitions is far removed from you, whilst keeping 
that summit in view you should plan to attain the 
lesser intervening eminences. 

In any case, make your present position in life 


116 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 
a step to something higher; make yourself supe- 
rior to your position. 

As you rise, so will your ideals, consequently 
your ambitions; you will see new eminences. 

Picture yourself as having attained your am¬ 
bitions. Revel in the anticipation, and then look 
around you in order to see how you can proceed 
to materialise your mental pictures. 

Opportunities.—Opportunities lie close at hand 
though a wrong mental attitude may prevent one 
from realising that fact, but instead may inter¬ 
pose imaginary obstacles. “Bad luck” and the 
influence of others are often blamed for circum¬ 
stances of our own making, due to the undis¬ 
ciplined nature of ourselves. In various senses 
Lucius was correct in stating: “We are afraid of 
the obstacle, without dreaming that very often we 
have created it.” “Many things,” remarks 
Duclos, “are only impossible because one is accus¬ 
tomed to regard them as such.” 

“Lucky stones,” charms, and such like are not 
so useless as at first sight they may appear. 
Prophecies, prayers, and omens often bring about 
their own fulfilment, for persons are thereby led 


COUEISM AND SUCCESS 117 

to look at every occurrence with expectant eyes, 
and act in accordance with what they imagine the 
circumstances to signify. And what is true of 
events is true as regards individuals. The Due 
de la Rochefoucauld pointed out that “Our own 
distrust justifies in a measure the deceit of others.” 

The regulation of our actions depends upon 
innumerable incidents neither to be foreseen nor 
prevented. The personal attitude towards them 
is mainly what matters. If we think of ourselves 
as failures we are rather on the defensive, whereas 
the proper way to gain success is to ask oneself 
at every turn: “Can I turn this circumstance to 
advantage?” Make use of every apparent mis¬ 
fortune. Welcome temptations as things to 
which you can show your superiority. If circum¬ 
stances are unfavourable do not let them lead to 
inaction on your part. So act that at the turn 
of the tide you will be in a position to profit by it. 

Sometimes a series of “misfortunes” follow 
one another; but if they drive us to taking stock 
of our position, to looking out for opportunities, 
and to hard work they turn out to be useful, in 
that they make us more capable. 


118 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


Recollect that complete rest is impossible, and 
see to it that you do not waste your energy by 
directing it into wrong channels. The amount of 
energy most people expend to make themselves 
failures would suffice to make them successes twice 
over. 

Do not be subservient to events; make them 
subservient to you. 

Don’t Hurry.—The attitude of mind recom¬ 
mended is one that grows; it does not shoot into 
full bloom all at once. We are pointing out the 
road to success—viz., the training and utilisation 
of imagination. By intelligently adopting that 
means you may hasten the progress; but if you 
attempt to succeed by hurrying (that is, by sheer 
effort) you will invariably stumble. 

Success Succeeds.—When by relying upon the 
right mental attitude you have progressed some¬ 
what your confidence will thereby be increased. 
‘‘Success nourishes hope,” wrote Virgil of some 
boat racers; “they are able because they think 
themselves able.” But there is another advantage 
of success—by it you gain knowledge useful in 
the furtherance of later ambitions. Note the 


COUEISM AND SUCCESS 119 

successes or failures of others, and analyse as far 
as practicable their causes. You will then per¬ 
ceive many points from which useful lessons may 
be gained. Often, you will see, it is the time 
chosen that makes all the difference as regards 
results. A mode of conduct may be excellent in 
conjunction with one set of external circumstances, 
and just the reverse in conjunction with another. 

Stoicism.—You must be prepared bravely to 
meet opposition. Censure, contempt, and ridi¬ 
cule are invariably part of the reception afforded 
to whoever acts differently from his fellows. If 
hitherto you have fancied yourself unfortunate 
assume the attitude of Marcus Aurelius. If you 
cease your complaining, he stated in effect, you 
are not hurt, and if you are not hurt you do not 
complain. People are not partial to employing 
scorn without effect; indeed, the very persons who 
condemn an individual or mode of conduct most 
heartily are wont to subsequently go to the other 
extreme and copy or support what they con¬ 
demned. 

Do not waste your passions. Worry, as else¬ 
where pointed out, is disastrous in tendency. 


120 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


Anger, endless reiterations of reasoning, and so 
on also detract from success. 

If opposed press on. Weakness tempts oppo¬ 
sition as much as does arrogance. Show that you 
are determined and will remain so, and you will 
find that ofttimes a space clears around and leaves 
you room for free action. 

Judgment and Action.—Do not be afraid to 
rely upon your own judgment. Few so rely in 
important matters, though they are prone to ad¬ 
vise others. 

The judgment springing from a disciplined 
imagination is usually correct. Imagination will 
lead you to understand others, and consequently 
to work from satisfactory premises. Experience 
and observation will also increase and be made 
use of effectively. Whatever is decided upon will 
thus rest upon a well-ordered plan which, in spite 
of unexpected occurrences, will as a rule only 
slightly be altered—the end kept in view through¬ 
out. Occasionally the object for which much has 
been done will be prudently relinquished, but the 
work will not be wasted, rather made to subserve 
some other and better plan. 


121 


COUEISM AND SUCCESS 

The work of a person of force of character is 
to deliberate, resolve, and execute, not to be 
dominated. Counsel is considered by such a per¬ 
son, but merely as “circumstantial” evidence that 
will aid in the formation of a correct judgment. 
Often a casualty may seem to threaten one with 
failure and yet further one’s success. 

We do not advise you to act at random merely 
for the sake of doing something. Deliberate 
when time permits. If you do not see the solu¬ 
tion of a problem gather up all the information 
you can in reference thereto, and probably (as 
with Benjamin Franklin with political and other 
questions) the solution will be worked out during 
sleep. In any case, the unconscious if trusted will 
aid you, and usually with better results than you 
could possibly otherwise attain. 

“Progress” Habit.—Though like walking, orig¬ 
inally learned slowly, the advocated mode of 
looking at things will eventually become almost 
automatic, there will be no danger of your getting 
into a rut if you make use, as recommended, of 
the formula: “Day by day, in every way, I am 
getting better and better.” You will also be 


i22 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


patient and happy, knowing that every day is one 
of progress. 

More still, you will be building your character. 
The term “character” (may we remark) is de¬ 
rived from a Greek word signifying the mark or 
impression on a coin—that which betokens the 
nature and value of the piece. One’s moral char¬ 
acter, however, is not a fixed thing, it alters from 
day to day—ay, from hour to hour. A great per¬ 
sonality has to be built. “Nothing great,” de¬ 
clared Arrian, “is done on a sudden.” 

Special Exercise.—A practice we can heartily 
recommend is the addressing of one’s reflection in 
a mirror. Morning and evening exercise of this 
kind can be made very serviceable in a variety of 
ways. In the morning the student should assume 
an easy and confident attitude before the mirror, 
then relate aloud the various likely duties and oc¬ 
currences of the commencing day, and what the 
speaker conceives to be the best possible way of 
acting under the circumstances. The speech 
should take some such form as this: “When I 
meet B. I shall be completely self-contained, and 
will speak fluently but prudently,” and so on. 


COUEISM AND SUCCESS 123 

The student should imagine anticipated inter¬ 
views, as did General Gordon (the hero of Khar¬ 
toum) previous to them, and act and speak as 
appears most suitable. (Do not forget the truth 
that “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”) 
Scheme out all the likely happenings of the day, 
and prepare yourself for each one separately. 
Complete your preparation with the sentence: 
“Day by day, in every way, I am getting better 
and better.” 

In the evening a self-criticism of one’s own con¬ 
duct should be made. Condemn honestly where 
wrong, but always add that in future should a 
similar circumstance arise you will act judiciously. 
As Seneca observed, “We should every night call 
ourselves to account. What infirmity have I 
mastered to-day? What passion opposed ? What 
temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? . . . 
Our vices will abate of themselves if they are 
brought every day to the shrift.” 

During the second day the preparation, actions, 
and criticisms of the first day will be utilised. 
Prepare yourself in the morning and criticise 
yourself in the evening as on the first day. The 


124 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

third day will consequently be better prepared for, 
and, indeed, in every way you will become better 
and better day by day. You will even find that, 
indirectly, the capacity of connected thought, of 
ready recollection, of fluency and forcefulness, 
and of self-confidence will be rapidly increased, 
and voice and health considerably improved. 

Remember throughout, however, that there 
must be no effort. Tolerate no gripping under 
the chin, nor heaving up of the shoulders. Allow 
the words you employ to arise into consciousness; 
don’t think in advance. 

Some persons complain that in attempting this 
practice they feel ridiculous. Perhaps persons of 
the class referred to are in general bashful or 
even awkward—peculiarities far more inviting of 
ridicule than is the custom of which they are in¬ 
clined to “fight shy.” Let such persons bear in 
mind the reflection of la Rochefoucauld: “That 
conduct often seems ridiculous, the secret reasons 
of which are wise and solid.” 


CHAPTER X 


MATERNITY 

I N the minds of persons who dare to incur the 
enormous responsibility of bringing children 
into the world the question of child-welfare should 
stand at the forefront. Such persons should re¬ 
flect that their example and precept will most 
assuredly be felt by their offspring’s remotest 
progenitor, just they themselves are in part 
what they are because of the conduct of their 
remotest ancestor. But to everyone who has in¬ 
terest in posterity—and everyone should have that 
interest—the phase of autosuggestion upon which 
we are now entering can hardly fail to prove 
worthy of earnest consideration. Whoever pro¬ 
mulgates the views here set forth will thereby be 
doing something for posterity as well as for the 
present generation. 

Pre-Natal Environment.—That a child is the 
product of heredity and environment combined 


125 


126 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

scarcely admits of reasonable dispute, but there 
has been a tendency of late years to magnify the 
influence of heredity and proportionately mini¬ 
mise that of environment. 

If we place three buds from the same plant 
into different soils we get widely different re¬ 
sults. One seed may “come to nothing,” or die 
early; from another may develop but a feeble, 
stunted plant, not nearly equal to the parent 
stock; but from the third seed may spring a fine, 
well-formed tree. In much the same way a child 
under one set of circumstances may be weak and 
a failure, but under another set of circumstances 
may develop into a strong, intellectual, and emi¬ 
nently moral being. 

“The infant as it appears at birth is supposed 
by many to represent the sum total of heredity; 
but, in reality, there is something added and 
something lacking. What a child is born with 
is ‘congenital’; only what is contained potentially 
in the cytula or stem-cell (a combination of the 
ovum and spermatozoon) at the moment of con¬ 
ception is ‘hereditary.’ Birth is but an event in 
the existence of each individual. The unborn 


MATERNITY 


127 

child is not a conscious being, but still it has an 
individual existence, and is affected for good or 
evil by its then environment.” 1 

To what extent the pre-natal environment is 
capable of affecting the infant can only be ascer¬ 
tained in part; but that much is described as he¬ 
reditary which is merely congenital can be readily 
demonstrated, as can also the ascription to he¬ 
redity of various peculiarities traceable to post¬ 
natal influence. As Baudouin has pointed out: 
“There are three kinds of suggestion which rein¬ 
force; one another in the simulation of heredity; 
first of all there is suggestion acting on the foetus; 
secondly, there is the imitative suggestion which 
is one of the laws of the development of the child; 
and lastly, in the adult there is the superstition 
that heredity is ‘inexorable’—a superstition no 
less erroneous than the belief in miraculous cures, 
and just as disastrous as the latter is often bene¬ 
ficial.” 

For many years past we have insisted that, 
with comparatively rare exceptions, a child’s pre- 


X J. Louis Orton, Rational Hypnotism, Book V., chapter vii. 



128 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


natal environment has been given only a very 
meagre share of its due measure of attention. 

Pre-Natal Education.—A Persian ambassador 
asked the wife of Leonidas why women were so 
much honoured in Lacedaemon. Her reply was: 
“It is because only they know how to make men ” 

The ancient Greek and Roman mothers when 
pregnant commonly kept a statue of Hercules 
near the bedside in order that their thoughts being 
often drawn thereby to the contemplation of 
physical strength and beauty they would give 
birth to children possessing those attributes. 
Expectant mothers can well go a step further; 
should, indeed, a few weeks after conception 
make a mental picture of the unborn child as they 
would have it become, endued richly with those 
physical and mental qualities which will make for 
the uplifting of itself and mankind at large. At 
the same time, the mother should endeavour to 
interest herself in all that is good and beautiful. 
That will tend toward the well-being of offspring 
and mother alike. 

Cautions to Expectant Mothers.—By the in¬ 
telligent employment of autosuggestion during 


MATERNITY 


129 


pregnancy and childbirth many of the inconven¬ 
iences commonly experienced can be entirely dis¬ 
pensed with, and others reduced to a minimum. 
Pregnancy should be treated as a period of happy 
expectation of a glorious climax. The remem¬ 
brance of the curse “In sorrow shalt thou bring 
forth children” has given rise in women to hurt¬ 
ful autosuggestion followed, of course, by the 
evils anticipated. We are fully aware that there 
is a physical side to the question; but not only 
does the influence of autosuggestion frequently 
nullify whatever admirable courses are adopted, 
it is essential to the full benefit derivable from 
any one of them. 

Morning sickness can usually be entirely dis¬ 
pensed with by autosuggestion. When it cannot 
the vomiting is usually of short duration and un¬ 
preceded by any uncomfortable sensation. Over¬ 
feeding is the ordinary cause of morning sickness ; 
an expectant mother needs very little extra nu¬ 
triment—in fact, as a rule her ordinary diet con¬ 
tains considerably more nourishment than her 
system can possibly make use of. 

There are two particular points we would here 


130 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

emphasise. The first is that a pregnant woman 
especially should be careful not to drink more 
than is essential to relieve thirst, for otherwise 
an excess of amniotic fluid and a dropsical con¬ 
dition in the child are likely to result. The sec¬ 
ond point is that meat, cheese, and other particu¬ 
larly “flesh-forming” foods should be partaken 
of but sparingly, as they tend to make the child 
have an excessively hard skull and a compara¬ 
tively immovable fontanelle—conditions unfav¬ 
ourable to easy childbirth and likely to lead to in¬ 
jury of the infant during delivery. 

The odd maternal fancies known as “long¬ 
ings” should, unless definitely harmful, be com¬ 
plied with; for longings, when they are not satis¬ 
fied, are very often the cause of bad autosugges¬ 
tions. When a longing is for something of an 
unquestionably harmful character it should be dis¬ 
posed of by purposive autosuggestion. The same 
antidote should be employed by men who, through 
involuntary autosuggestion, have bad health 
whenever their wives are pregnant. 

Childbirth.—This can be rendered partially or 
even entirely painless by autosuggestion. There 


MATERNITY 


131 

must, of course, be preparatory (“grinding”) and 
expulsive (“bearing-down”) movements, but 
such functions need not be accompanied by pain 
—the preparatory movements may pass entirely 
unnoticed by the pregnant woman. Expectant 
mothers should assume in advance that all will be 
well; if they assume the contrary they thereby 
pave the way for, in fact, create, the troubles 
they would like to avoid. 

Lactation (Suckling). — Practically every 
woman who has given birth to a full-time child 
is also capable of suckling it satisfactorily. The 
amount of nourishment needed for the sustenance 
of a newly born child is very little in excess of 
what was required by it previous to birth. Prac¬ 
tically the only difference is that, whereas before 
birth the nourishment was received through the 
umbilical cord, after birth the child is fed through 
the mouth. The ordinary infant is enormously 
overfed, consequently its system is heavily taxed 
through having to deal with the overplus; and if 
the child be excessively suckled the mother suf¬ 
fers through what is a species of self-abuse, for 
though the stimulation, or rather irritation, result- 


i 3 2 conscious autosuggestion 

ing from the suckling leads to the formation of 
larger quantities of milk, that milk is depleted as 
regards quality, and eventually a species of “im¬ 
potence” of the breast functions is brought about. 
An infant needs no more than three feedings per 
day (no night feeding is needful or advisable) 
and these feedings should be at least live hours 
apart. A really healthy and judiciously fed in¬ 
fant rarely has more than one motion (and that 
properly formed) in twenty-four hours. Such a 
child is not fat, but muscular and vigorous; and 
its mentality is usually far above that of the or¬ 
dinary infant. 


CHAPTER XI 


THE HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 

Parental Co-operation.—“Children,” asserted 
Chrysostom, “are our chiefest possession.” 

A Greek lady showed her jewels to Phocian’s 
mother and asked in return to be allowed to see 
the latter’s. The mother showed the lady her 
children, and said: “These are my dress and 
ornaments; I hope one day they will be all my 
glory.” 

With the ancient Romans it was the custom 
for chaste mothers to undertake the first steps in 
the education of their sons, as well as to attend 
to the house duties. Cornelia, the mother of the 
Gracchi, Aurelia, the mother of Julius Caesar, 
and Attia, the mother of Augustus, all presided 
over the education of their children. The de¬ 
cline of this laudable custom and of the Roman 
power were coincident. The consigning of their 
offspring to the care of ignorant, and often vi- 


133 


i 3 4 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

cious, Greek or other domestics helped to pave 
the way to the downfall of the empire. 

The great Napoleon declared: “To the man¬ 
ner in which my mother formed me at an early 
age I principally owe my subsequent elevation. 
My opinion is that the future good or bad con¬ 
duct of a child depends entirely upon the mother.” 

Whilst admitting the great influence that can 
be exercised for good by a judicious mother we 
feel very strongly that part of the duty of child- 
rearing should devolve upon the father. We 
would say with Plato: “I know not on what a 
serious and sensible man should rather employ 
himself than on his son, that he may be rendered 
as good a man as possible,” and with Xenophon: 
“He who hath rendered his son a very valuable 
man, though he should bequeath but little, hath 
already bestowed a great deal.” 

Good System Requisite.—The vast majority 
of parents wish to do the best possible for their 
children. That in general they lamentably fail 
to attain that end is due to lack of knowledge. 
Reliance upon instinct is far from enough. There 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 135 

must be system, and good system. Perfection is 
never reached, but we should aim at what we 
conceive it to be. With increasing knowledge 
our ideals rise. 

“Bring up a child in the way it should go,” 
said an ancient sage, “and he will not depart from 
it when he is old.” We believe in the truth of 
that maxim—which, by the way, does not refer 
to its converse, and leaves open the decision as 
to what is “the right way.” If you bring up a 
child in the way he should not go he may never¬ 
theless realise his errors and reform. If, how¬ 
ever, properly reared matured sense will approve 
of “the right way.” 

Parental Chivalry.—The position of parent to 
child should be that of a friend rather than a 
master or mistress. The child should be led to 
confide in its parents as its best friends. Chivalry 
is something more than fairness; it is more than 
merely forgoing an advantage. To be chival¬ 
rous to one’s fallen opponent, to be chivalrous to 
women, and so on, have their counterpart in 
chivalry to children. The fact that parents have 
brought children into the world is an excellent 


136 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

reason for care and protection on those parents’ 
part, but can hardly be an adequate reason for 
the children honouring and obeying their parents. 
The honour paid should be a voluntary action on 
the children’s part—a result of experience re¬ 
garding their parents—though, with infants, 
suckling and caressing are other factors. 

In his universally read and valued work on 
Education, Herbert Spencer wrote: “Not only 
will you have constantly to analyse the motives 
of your children, but you will have to analyse 
your own motives, to discriminate between those 
internal suggestions springing from a true paren¬ 
tal solicitude and those which spring from your 
own selfishness, your love of ease, your lust of 
dominion. And then, more trying still, you will 
have not only to detect but to curb those baser 
impulses. In brief, you will have to carry on 
your own higher education at the same time that 
you are educating your children. . . . While in 
its injurious effects on both parent and child a 
bad system is twice cursed, a good system is twice 
blessed—it blesses him that trains and him that’s 
trained.” 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 137 

A judicious Belgian father with whom we are 
acquainted thus defended the procedures he 
adopted with his children: “Knowing what is 
the right thing to do, I have not the courage to 
do the wrong.” We want to greatly increase the 
number of “cowards” of that type. 

Infantile Impressionability.—If one wishes to 
perceive the extreme effects of early suggestion 
one can do so by observation of the lower ani¬ 
mals and of birds. He can also perceive by such 
observation how readily the result of upbringing 
can be, and is, mistaken for hereditary instinct. 

That birds display fear of the colour blue, so 
that a blue-paper scarecrow is a sure protection 
for peas and fruit; that cattle are really afraid 
of red; and many similar peculiarities have been 
definitely proved. On the other hand, it is just 
as certain that the fear entertained by animals 
for their natural enemies is often, if not entirely, 
originated by suggestion. All animals are sup¬ 
posed to instinctively fear the snake, but close 
observation and experimentation have shown that 
fear of the kind indicated is not felt by any but 
the higher apes, the more intelligent of the pas- 


138 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

serine birds, and mankind—even if by them, ob¬ 
servation of the creature’s strength and deduc¬ 
tions therefrom being an adequate explanation. 
The snake’s appearance and movements certainly 
suggest exceptional power and possible danger 
therefrom. When a cat approaches a bird just 
come from its nest, the bird does not attempt to 
escape unless warned of danger by an adult of 
its species. As a rule the parents assiduously 
watch their young, and upon the anticipation of 
danger (for instance, through the approach of a 
man within a certain distance) the cock parent 
gives vent to a shrill note expressive of strong 
emotion, whereupon the young bird takes flight. 

The effect of suggestion accompanied by strong 
emotion is in the case of human infants, too, pro¬ 
found; but, fortunately, deleterious suggestions 
can later be successfully combated by healthy 
ones. When such a counteracting influence is not 
brought into play the child may develop a pro¬ 
nounced neurosis. 

Involuntary Suggestion in Childhood.—Adults 
are apt to ignore the work of suggestion inas¬ 
much as they do not usually observe the modifica- 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 139 

tions, often extremely minute, in themselves, and 
because the modifications are unconscious to the 
individual. Also to admit them is often humiliat¬ 
ing, and they are repressed. But recollect the 
desires of childhood; reflect on how you fancied 
your childish desires could never give place to 
others; and then think of the vast alterations of 
outlook that have occurred. You will then see 
how potent, and yet how little recognised, is the 
force of suggestion. 

The ideas of young children regarding truth 
and error, right and wrong, almost entirely coin¬ 
cide with those of their parents or guardians. 
We concur with the opinion expressed that one 
of the greatest influences bearing on the Great 
War was the fact that William II. of Germany 
upon his accession enlisted the aid of the elemen¬ 
tary school teachers to foist upon their pupils 
that crooked political outlook which made wan¬ 
ton war appear to the rising generation justifiable 
and necessary. 

Our tastes are mainly formed in infancy. Chil¬ 
dren do what they have seen others do, though 
often in forgetfulness of having seen them. 


140 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

Nevertheless, “children incline,” as Baudouin 
says, “to like everything that those whom they 
are fond of like. But if you are in a child’s black 
books he will detest whatever you say, whatever 
you do, and whatever you like. A child is in the 
sulks and does not want to eat his soup; if now 
you unfortunately say that the soup is good, the 
child, who is at odds with you, interprets your 
saying by contraries, and may even take a per¬ 
manent dislike to that particular soup.” The 
fact should always be taken into account that all 
the elements that make the adult mind are in the 
mind of the child; but whereas one set of cir¬ 
cumstances may lead to success, another may lead 
to failure. 

Potentialities and Actualities.—Have we mod¬ 
erns any inborn intellectual superiority over the 
ancients? It would be difficult to prove that we 
have. What we do have is the advantage of dis¬ 
coveries and inventions of intervening centuries. 
Could a modern be born with the same environ¬ 
ment as, let us say, an ancient Greek, he would 
have no possible chance of knowing anything of 
wireless, for instance, for that discovery is the 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 141 

outcome of numerous others, each in itself gi¬ 
gantic. In much the same way a negro who has 
not come into touch with civilisation cannot be 
expected to show the same accomplishments as 
an average European, but that fact is no evidence 
that he is lacking in intellectual potentiality. 

We do not maintain that all men are poten¬ 
tially equal viewed mentally (any more than when 
viewed physically), or that the wild men of 
Borneo are equal mentally to average Europeans; 
nevertheless, the fact is well attested that where 
white and black children are educated together at 
elementary schools, as, for example, in the United 
States of America and in the British Colonies, 
there is little if anything to choose between the 
two races as regards aptitude. The same equality 
would seem to apply to adults, though the testing 
of that matter is not equally easy, for the non- 
European students who attend the European Uni¬ 
versities and other centres of learning are usually 
selected representatives of great numbers. Nev¬ 
ertheless, standing as they do, European stu¬ 
dents certainly do not give evidence of higher 
intellectual power than do Indians, Chinese, 


142 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

Japanese, Burmese, Siamese, or negroes. What 
makes one nation on the whole superior intel¬ 
lectually to another is mainly the result of up¬ 
bringing. 

Lao-Tze, a Chinese philosopher who flour¬ 
ished in the sixth century before the Christian 
era, well declared: “Action should be taken be¬ 
fore a thing has made its appearance; order 
should be secured before disorder has begun.” 
Mr. C. H. Brooks, in his inspiring little book 
dealing with Coueism, writes: “The acceptance 
of autosuggestion entails a change of attitude, a 
revaluation of life. If we stand with our faces 
westward we see nothing but clouds and dark¬ 
ness, yet by a simple turn of the head we bring 
the wide panorama of the sunrise into view.” 

The child being exposed promiscuously to sug¬ 
gestion, only by methodical autosuggestion can it 
be adequately protected with any degree of cer¬ 
tainty against the many harmful suggestions it 
necessarily receives. However careful adults may 
be they are bound to err from time to time in 
suggesting by their own example what cannot be 
conducive to the child’s true interests, and thus 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 143 

parents and guardians owe it to the child to coun¬ 
teract by methodical suggestion the harmful tend¬ 
encies. They need not be afraid that through 
lack of skill they will bungle irreparably in the 
instilling of suggestion; what suggestion can do, 
it can also undo. 

One must take children as they are. At the 
obvious risk of often failing to deal with them 
in the most prudent way one is compelled to teach 
them by example if not by precept. One cannot 
possibly leave their opinions uninfluenced, and 
parents who delude themselves into believing that 
their child’s reason is its sole incentive to con¬ 
duct remind us of the boy who was told that 
whenever he felt inclined to disregard his 
mother’s advice he should ask permission of his 
deceased father’s portrait. 

Methodical Suggestion in Early Infancy.—A 
baby in its cradle may indicate by crying that it 
would like to be taken up. Directly it is taken 
up it becomes quiet, but no sooner is it replaced 
in the cradle than it resumes its crying, and con¬ 
tinues until it gets tired, or is convinced that its 
parents will not heed the suggestion to take it up 


i 4 4 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

again. When by purposive inattention to the 
crying the parents have driven home the sugges¬ 
tion of the uselessness of crying, “what will it do 
then—coo-e?” wittily asks the Daily News. 

When an infant is put into its cot, the room 
darkened, and perhaps some monotonous nurs¬ 
ery rhyme sung to the child, it will be likely to go 
to sleep. A few repetitions of the process will 
usually suffice to induce sleep, through the asso¬ 
ciation of ideas, almost immediately the blinds 
are drawn and the song commences. Similarly 
by “holding out” a few times bedwetting can be 
almost, or even entirely, dispensed with. 

Diversion of attention is a form of suggestion 
very useful, if tactfully employed, with infants. 
If when the child is about to cry one unobtrusively 
draws its attention to some interesting object or 
performance its face may at once become 
wreathed in smiles. 

If we are asked: “At what age should verbal 
suggestion be commenced with a child?” our 
reply is: “Certainly not later than a mother 
might, in the case of a hurt to baby, kiss the 
place (ostensibly) to make it well.” No more 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 145 

difficulty is found in instilling in infants self-con¬ 
trol, consideration for others, and other desir¬ 
able qualities than habits of regular sleeping and 
bowel evacuation. 

Even before a child can understand the sim¬ 
plest words we have the language of emotions to 
fall back upon as a suggestive agent. Caresses, 
gestures, and tones of voice can be very early 
apprehended by an ordinary child’s mind, and 
should therefore be utilised as far as practicable. 
Nevertheless, as by adding definiteness to what 
is vocally expressed words help in keeping the 
requisite ideas dominant in consciousness we 
recommend that words be employed from the first 
—just as is done in man’s intercourse with the 
lower animals. 

Should the child suffer in any way it should be 
gently caressed and the lessening and disappear¬ 
ance of pain suggested meanwhile. 

Methodical Home-Suggestion in Childhood.— 
The only “night feeding” we believe in is com¬ 
posed of suggestions for digestion and assimila¬ 
tion by the child’s mind. In general, the duty of 
administering this food should at first be under- 


i 4 6 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

taken by the mother, though, if for any reason 
that is impracticable, it should be assumed by the 
father, other relative, or nurse—not omitted. 

In order to ensure getting the advantage of 
night treatment as early as possible the custom 
can be started in the child’s earliest infancy. 
Gradually the babe will understand the signifi¬ 
cance of the words spoken. When boys reach 
seven or eight years of age the father (when 
practicable) should replace the mother. At pu¬ 
berty he is certainly more suitable to deal with 
any sex difficulties that may appear. 

Night treatment, in its developed form, should 
be conducted thus: To avoid undesirable awak¬ 
ening you may prepare the child by saying be¬ 
forehand: “When you are asleep to-night I shall 
come and talk to you. You will attend to all I 
say but will not awaken.” Then when the child 
is asleep you should enter the room cautiously 
and, standing about a yard from the bed, should 
murmur fifteen or twenty times the suggestion 
that you wish to be responded to. Such sugges¬ 
tions may apply solely to matters of health, sleep, 
perseverance, and the like, or may include speech 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 147 

defects, chorea, nervousness, fears, or bad habits. 
Having completed the treatment the adult should 
depart as cautiously as he or she entered the 
room. On the morrow the child may perchance 
recall somewhat of the treatment, but more likely 
not so. In either case a marked improvement 
will probably have taken place in the child. The 
treatment should be repeated systematically for 
as long as is necessary; indeed, it can very well 
form a permanent part of the child’s training. 
As soon as children can speak they should be pro¬ 
vided with a string containing twenty knots, and 
accustomed to repeat morning and night twenty 
consecutive times: “Day by day, in every way, I 
am getting better and better.” The various other 
aspects of autosuggestion should be placed before 
the child’s mind when it becomes sufficiently pre¬ 
pared to grasp and apply them. By this means 
the child’s individuality will be cultivated, and, 
little by little, the child may, and should, be left 
to its own initiative. 

Children’s Faults.—For a limited period most 
children display a love of contrariness for its 
own sake. This usually occurs in their second or 


148 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

third year, but is soon modified if the children 
are tactfully treated. The parent should not try 
to “break down the child’s will,” but to cultivate 
an appreciation of fair play. If this end is to be 
properly achieved the parent will have to act in 
accordance with the sentiment expressed in the 
quotation, a few pages back, from Herbert 
Spencer. Many parents aim at making their chil¬ 
dren’s desires coincide with their own at any 
cost, not reflecting that thereby they are inter¬ 
fering with the development of individuality. A 
never-contrary child, if such a being exists, is 
devoid of that valuable asset. 

Were such self-abnegation possible that we all 
would insist upon acting in accordance with the 
wishes of others we would nevertheless and there¬ 
by have to disoblige a large proportion of our 
fellow-beings, and self-initiative would be abol¬ 
ished—and along with it all social progress. 

Some parents take their children to a phrenol¬ 
ogist, and, in accordance with his decisions, com¬ 
mence a course of unintentional, and in many 
cases harmful, suggestion. In point of fact, at¬ 
tempts to ascertain characteristics and aptitudes 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 149 

by external examination of the cranium are falla¬ 
cious, as consideration of a few (out of many) 
relevant facts suffices to show. The brain does 
not exactly fit the skull; there are cranial cavities, 
which are not uniform in individuals; the bones 
enclosing and adjacent to the brain are of vary¬ 
ing proportions (the so-called “bump” of philo¬ 
progenitiveness is merely a thickness of the cra¬ 
nium) ; there are no guides as to where one 
“bump” ends and another begins; and whether a 
bump grows inwards or sideways in a given case 
cannot be decided by external examination. 

A man of proven business acumen remarked 
that but for the timely use of autosuggestion that 
ability would undoubtedly have been ever hidden. 
“You may be a clever man, but I am sure you will 
never be a good business one—your father 
never was,” his mother would say to him. 

It is unjust to a child to decide, irrespective 
of its inclinations and special aptitudes, what its 
life’s work shall be. You may thus lead to fail¬ 
ure—in any case, are likely to seriously handicap 
the child throughout its life. 

If a child possessing force of character be un- 


150 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

duly thwarted in its aim we may expect the pent-up 
energy to break through its barriers when oppor¬ 
tunity occurs. Use tact. If, for instance, a child 
exhibits a love of destroying things turn the pro¬ 
pensity to good account. Tactfully instigate the 
child to find out errors (every error discovered in¬ 
fers a corresponding gain of truth) and its own 
bad points. Such a child can become a particu¬ 
larly good autosuggestionist—especially if led to 
look upon the procedures as weapons. 

Timid children need encouragement and the 
assumption by other people that they are capable. 
Responsibilities will help to take the children out 
of themselves and, eventually, to develop self- 
confidence. 

Punishment in the ordinary sense need rarely, 
if ever, be resorted to in the rearing of children. 
The only rational motive from which punishment 
can be inflicted is as a deterrent of wrong-doing, 
to supply an incentive to right-doing more power¬ 
ful than those incentives which have proved, or 
been likely to prove, insufficient. Harshness and 
brutality induce fear and cunning, often vindic¬ 
tiveness. 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 151 

Children should be made to realise that things 
are not good or bad respectively according to 
whether they are allowed or forbidden, but in 
accordance with the consequences which may or 
may not attend them. 

In the third century of the Christian era a 
Buddhist king, Asoka, caused many inscriptions 
to be engraven on rocks and pillars in various 
parts of his dominions, which inscriptions pre¬ 
sent Buddhism undegenerated. One of the in¬ 
scriptions of Asoka declares: “This is the true 
religious devotion, this the sum of religious in¬ 
structions, that it should increase the mercy and 
charity, the truth and purity, the kindness and 
honesty of the world.” 

Prudence and sympathy stand at the base of 
practical ethics. The power of sympathy de¬ 
pends upon the imagination, and the imagination 
also holds in play the safeguard prudence, which 
acts as a check upon pity, which might otherwise 
lead to the performance of injudicious actions. 
Imagination enabling us to more correctly gauge 
the ultimate effects of our actions; its culture 
throughout life is of very great importance. 


152 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

Guard Your Speech.—Some children when 
scolded, or when they feel ashamed of them¬ 
selves, mope. Not infrequently their silence is 
ascribed to sulkiness. In adults shyness is often 
mistaken for pride. 

It is a frailty common to humanity to judge the 
motives of actions from the effect of those actions 
upon ourselves. Though an action may have 
caused annoyance, it may have arisen from care¬ 
lessness or bad judgment. One should be par¬ 
ticularly careful as regards the imputing of mo¬ 
tives when dealing with children. Children are 
less likely than adults to act judiciously, having 
had less experience of mankind/. To impute bad 
motives to children has a strong tendency to give 
rise to the very faults we are wishing them to 
avoid. A similar effect may result from the ac¬ 
cusation, “You are lazy and good for nothing.” 

Always weigh your words carefully, particu¬ 
larly when dealing with children. When, for 
instance, you wish a child to perform some duty, 
tell him or her exactly what that duty is, and 
omit as far as possible from your instructions the 
word “Don’t.” “Let me see how well you can 


/ 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 153 

do this or that” stimulates the young child, caus¬ 
ing its bosom to swell with pride; but “Don’t do 
it badly” irritates or depresses it, and in all prob¬ 
ability leads to poor work being performed. 
With adults a discourteous order to a servant is, 
as Tacitus stated, rather interpreted than obeyed. 

It often happens that in the presence of a child 
the absent nurse is picked to pieces in the drawing¬ 
room. The child invariably follows the example 
and is likely to develop into a scandalmonger. 
Whenever a child is present beware of speaking 
ill of anyone. 

Stories of hobgoblins and werewolves are not 
fit for children. Though the fictitious nature of 
the stories be explained the child’s mind is filled 
with harmful pictures, and timidity may persist 
later in life. Parents who employ nurses should 
warn the latter against this error. 

Let your manner to your child be gentle but 
firm. After Rousseau we say: “Grant with 
pleasure, refuse with reluctance, but let your re¬ 
fusals be irrevocable. . . . Thus you will render 
him patient, quiet, and resigned, even when he 
cannot obtain what he wanted. . . . ‘There is 


154 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

no more’ is an answer against which no child ever 
mutinied, unless he thought you were telling him 
a lie.” 

The Use and Abuse of “Reasoning.”—Reason 
is the outcome of balancing pros and cons ob¬ 
tained from what is supposed by the person to 
be knowledge. The main cause of coming to 
faulty conclusions may be bad logic, but usually 
it is the assumption as fact of what is fiction—- 
the assumption of wrong premises. 

A child may reason very well from the knowl¬ 
edge it has, but the earliest steps in education 
cannot be made by means of reasoning. Oppor¬ 
tunities should be afforded for the child to ob¬ 
serve; but to attempt to instruct very young chil¬ 
dren by appealing to their “reason” solely is 
fallacious. Jean Jacques Rousseau saw this 
plainly. “Education’s masterpiece,” he wrote, 
“is to make a reasonable man, and you would 
fain educate a man by his reason. This is begin¬ 
ning at the end, and making an instrument of 
the work. If children were capable of reason 
they would have no need of education.” 

People do not act from abstract reason; they 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 155 

may indeed act in direct opposition to it—as is 
the case with the habitual drunkard. What 
people do act from is emotion, though reason 
may lead to the coming about of the emotion. As 
soon as children become sufficiently capable, use 
their reason to raise an emotion, which in turn 
will give rise to action. Suggestion should be 
used to guide the imagination and emotions, but 
never to give the child false premises. Whatever 
is true is in conformity with all other facts; there¬ 
fore, if we do not know the reason for a fact, 
that ignorance is the outcome of not being 
aware of, or of not sufficiently reflecting upon, the 
premises. 

By all means encourage children to reason, but 
demonstrate to them how wrong conclusions can 
arise through the assumption of wrong premises. 
Why do many adults quibble over the ascribed 
efficacy of suggestion? Merely because something 
they have hitherto supposed to be knowledge is 
inconsistent with it. Why do children take to 
the art of autosuggestion “like ducks take to 
water”? Merely because they have no prejudices 


to overcome. 


156 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

Sex Matters.—As soon as a child is old 
enough to express curiosity regarding sex matters 
it is old enough to have correct notions relating 
to them. It is far better to truthfully and intel¬ 
ligibly reply to any question a child raises rela¬ 
tive to the subject than to attempt to stifle the 
child’s curiosity or to misrepresent. In an in¬ 
telligent child curiosity will not be suppressed, 
and if the right information be not given the 
wrong may be substituted; indeed, a right or a 
wrong impression necessarily exists, and if a 
wrong one, as it does not stand isolated in the 
mind, it leads to other errors. To hide the truth 
regarding sex matters from a child suggests shame 
as the motive (it is usually mere shyness), and, 
consequently, wrong-doing. Tell a child the truth 
on sex matters and the idea of indecency will not 
be wrongly applied. (The child should be in¬ 
formed of the prudishness so prevalent.) Other 
advantages of speaking openly to the child re¬ 
garding sex matters are that thereby the child’s 
love for its parents, as its “parent stock,” is in¬ 
creased, and it is in a measure protected against 
some of the worst moral dangers that beset 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 157 

youth. Ignorance is often not bliss, but “knowl¬ 
edge is power.” 

Perhaps the best way in which sex-functions 
can be introduced to the child’s mind is by botany. 
The child should be shown that plants have male 
and female parts sometimes on the same stem, 
sometimes on different stems, and sometimes on 
individual plants. The child should be told that 
the pollen (corresponding to the animal semen) 
is' transferred to the female organ in consequence 
of close proximity, or by means of bees, or by ar¬ 
tificial contrivance—as when plants ( e.g the cu¬ 
cumber, marrow, and tomato) are grown in glass¬ 
houses. The child’s mind thus will be properly 
prepared for the fact that in animal life procrea¬ 
tion takes place by growth and separation (as in 
animalculae), by setting free the male element to 
be afterwards taken up by the female (as in 
fishes), or by intention. 

Children’s Health.—“Health,” declared Mon¬ 
taigne, “is one of the most precious and valuable 
gifts; without this, life itself is scarcely toler¬ 
able; pleasure, wisdom, learning, and virtue, des¬ 
titute of this, lose all their attractions.” 


158 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

Health is certainly an essential condition for 
the attainment of a truly happy and prosperous 
life. 

You parents and guardians may see to it that 
children under your charge have plenty of fresh 
air to breathe; that their diet is balanced, ade¬ 
quate, but not excessive; that they are kept as 
clean as physical aids will allow; and yet may 
thwart yourselves through inattention to the chil¬ 
dren’s mental attitudes. 

We cannot too strongly emphasise the duty 
of accustoming children to look upon health and 
mental vigour as birthrights. The harm wrought 
by introducing and encouraging the opposite line 
of thought is incalculable. Maternal “care” is 
often, very often, a curse. The child is led to 
look upon disease as an enemy that may at any 
moment seize its victim, instead of as a direct 
and just result of physical or mental wrong-doing. 
The main way of dealing with disease, it thinks, 
is to give the sick person some nasty stuff from 
a bottle. We do not for a moment condemn, 
but rather encourage, the giving of medicine when 
it is believed in by the patient; but to foster such 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 159 

a belief in a young child is most harmful and 
bound to give rise to erroneous notions on a 
variety of matters. “Do thus and thus to be' 
healthy,” we would have you say to children. 
Let them realise that the state of their health is 
not a matter of mere chance, but something de¬ 
pending upon a variety of ascertainable causes. 
Let them know, too, that, with rare exceptions, 
drugs are incapable of having a really beneficial 
effect, and that where good does follow the taking 
of “medicine” it almost invariably is due to the 
power of the imagination and not to the drug 
itself. It cannot be gainsaid by any sensible per¬ 
son that a wrong idea regarding the causes which 
induce health and disease is certain to lead to the 
committal of many actions prejudicial to health. 

Refrain from coddling children. Mankind are 
capable of adequately enduring without evil con¬ 
sequences great climatic changes. Expect to feel 
the cold and you thereby become sensitive to even 
slight changes of temperature; in fact, you create 
a cold sensation. 

Morbid excitability runs in families. It is 
partly heritable; is affected by pre-natal influences; 


160 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

and is commonly developed very effectively, 
though quite unintentionally, by parents—them¬ 
selves neurotic. Unless methodical suggestion 
be employed these children are very liable to 
become eventually nervous wrecks. 

Unbridled imagination in children leads to 
greater harm than in adults. Children who have 
night terrors and other similar nervous attacks 
need to be taught how to guide imagination. The 
ordinary, merely compassionate, way of dealing 
with them tends to increase the evils. 

There are “moody” children, very bright and 
lively or depressed by turn. They are pleased by 
encouragement, but take condemnation too much 
to heart. They are inclined to give way to pas¬ 
sions, especially if, as is commonly the case, they 
are “spoiled.” They are good mimics and prone 
to hysterical ailments. Their excitement is apt to 
lead to undesirable brain activity at bedtime, con¬ 
sequently they do not sleep, but insist upon con¬ 
stant attention— e.g. y they ask to have a light in 
the room. If scolded they burst into tears and 
scream. Night treatment, however, removes the 
evils readily. 


HOME-TRAINING OF CHILDREN 161 


Some children, including many epileptics, are 
prone to violent passions at the smallest provo¬ 
cation, are rude and cruel. In such cases the 
surest and best remedy is methodical suggestion. 


CHAPTER XII 

COUEISM IN THE SCHOOLROOM 
Why Coueism Was Needed.—Whoever has 
mastered the foregoing portion of this course 
doubtless realises how custom biases judgment 
regarding educational as well as other methods, 
how hard it often is to see where orthodox meth¬ 
ods are wrong, and, even when perceived, diffi¬ 
cult to make innovations. Pedagogues have not 
failed to remind or suggest to philosophers and 
psychologists who have formulated educational 
theories, or even given hints regarding the tuto¬ 
rial art, that, had the would-be innovators them¬ 
selves been teachers, they would have realised 
the utterly untenable nature of their proposals, 
or at least that the advice they gave needed con¬ 
siderable modification before it could be advan¬ 
tageously applied in schools. The doctor does 
not understand the baby, nor the philosopher the 
child’s mind, we have been told. However, one 
162 


COUEISM IN THE SCHOOLROOM 163 

of the greatest aids to perfection is a wholesome 
objection to things remaining as they are when 
an ascertained means of improvement is prac¬ 
ticable. Now we have not merely speculated as 
to what methodical suggestion might do. What 
we maintain is the evolved result of critical in¬ 
vestigation and long and wide experimentation. 
For many years both of us have been pressing 
before the notice of the general public the great 
educational value of methodical suggestion. The 
speed with which Coueism has taken hold of the 
minds of teachers, the wide extent to which it has 
been adopted in so short a time, and the enthusi¬ 
asm evinced by those who have tested it speak 
volumes as regards the widespread recognition 
of a defect in the drawing-out forces and the 
efficacy of methodical suggestion as an educational 
adjunct. 1 

To you who have carefully perused and tested 
our contentions the importance of instilling into 
children the habit of effective, effortless thought 

1 Many years have passed since I expressed the view that 
every school child should have the advantages which methodical 
suggestion can bestow. The credit for putting the matter upon 
a workable basis for schools lies solely with M. Coue.—J. L. O. 



164 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

must be apparent. You see the importance of 
teaching the art of relaxation and of showing to 
children, as early as their minds are capable of 
grasping the fact, the connection between relax¬ 
ation and the ideal mental condition for study. 
You realise how, by the utilisation of autosugges¬ 
tion (often called into play by external agency), 
the child can be led to love its work. (Aristotle 
aptly remarked: “All love to learn easily. ) 
You realise that, by this means, the child, instead 
of neglecting its work, is led effectively and fre¬ 
quently to make use of the meditative condition, 
and also look about for means whereby it can put 
to practical use the results of its mental labour. 
You realise how confidence can be established and 
perseverance assured. As Baudouin has pointed 
out, “The dispute between the various methods 
which claim to develop memory, attention, and 
interest in children resembles nothing so much as 
an interminable argument among persons in a 
hurry as to which is the quickest footpath, while 
they pay no attention to the railroad close at hand 
—to the train which could take them where they 
want to go in a tenth part of the time.” 


COUEISM IN THE SCHOOLROOM 165 

Some teachers who wish to be “up-to-date” have 
argued that they believe in the natural unfolding 
of the faculties. They refer to such statements 
as this from Madame Montessori: “By educa¬ 
tion must be understood active help given to the 
normal expansion of the life of the child”; and 
they may declare that they do not believe in tech¬ 
nique for children, preferring to let nature have 
her own way. As a test of this matter let us 
refer to some particular thing which children in 
general cannot be said to be taught and which 
most persons persist in doing throughout their 
lives. Voice production will serve the purpose 
very well. The first cry of infant life is correct 
voice production, but the employment of conso¬ 
nants tends to interfere with right laryngeal ac¬ 
tion, tends to bring about wrong location of 
energy. The consequence is that later the assist¬ 
ance of an expert in voice culture is almost in¬ 
variably essential to the recovery of the lost 
power. When a conservative education is em¬ 
ployed the need for voice resetting does not arise, 
and progress instead of retrogression has oc¬ 
curred. As with voice, so with the faculty of at- 


166 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


tendon. In early infancy the child does not em¬ 
ploy effort in order to attend. When, however, 
there is a call for continued attention, the child 
is extremely prone to employ excessive energy. 
The injunction to “try hard” tends to increase 
the evil; the quantity ( i.e the continuity) of at¬ 
tention should be increased without deteriora¬ 
tion as to quality. Only few persons retain as 
adults the knack of employing economically their 
mental powers, which knack, we maintain, should 
never have been lost. The retention and utilisa¬ 
tion of the faculty of easy attention throughout 
life is that for which we aim. “A stitch in time 
saves nine.” Any educational system which ig¬ 
nores autosuggestion, or which treats the culti¬ 
vation of the meditative condition as of merely 
secondary importance, is incomplete. Nay, more: 
it necessarily has a false basis. 

The greatest fault of ordinary education, there¬ 
fore, is that it deals too exclusively with the em¬ 
pirical consciousness. Teachers in general are 
wont to treat the unconscious much as they do 
the left hand—sometimes even punish a child for 
insisting on making use of it. Thereby they still 


COUEISM IN THE SCHOOLROOM 167 

further weaken certain mental functions which 
human beings have been tending more and more 
to lose. We maintain that education or re-educa¬ 
tion of the neglected functions proves of ines¬ 
timable value. 

Precocity and Backwardness.—Taking chil¬ 
dren as they are commonly found there appear 
to be immense differences as regards intelligence. 
We are convinced that this disparity is more ap¬ 
parent than real. Among “precocious” children 
there are those who merely give evidence of hasty, 
or it may be onesided (and, therefore, ultimately 
disadvantageous), development, and others whose 
brightness and talkativeness deceive persons who 
do not observe that whilst the child is prattling its 
reflective powers are unlikely to be simultaneously 
put to any material use. In the same way, among 
so-called “backward” children are included chil¬ 
dren who are silent because more than ordinarily 
reflective, and apparently lazy inasmuch as their 
minds are unsuspectedly busily engaged upon prob¬ 
lems of great interest to the young philosophers. 
(That is why so many “dunces” eventually be¬ 
come great.) Children may be really backward 


168 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


as a consequence of rickets and other complaints 
—mostly remediable by regimen and methodical 
suggestion; but usually “backwardness” is the 
outcome of misapplied, wasted energy. 

Many famous singers have apparently been 
gifted with very little voice before training. 
Even Caruso declared that his voice had resem¬ 
bled the noise produced by wind passing through 
a nearly closed doorway. Right method revealed 
what was hidden; and it is often so with mental 
potentialities. Dr. Liebeault had a boy patient 
who appeared to be little better than an idiot, 
but who nevertheless, thanks to methodical sug¬ 
gestion, in a few months stood at the head of his 
class. Similar and equally successful results have 
often followed the use of suggestion in our own 
practice. Certainly, without the agency of meth¬ 
ods such as, or similar to, those we advocate only 
in rare instances is anything even approaching the 
limit of one’s potential abilities attained. 

We have read somewhere of a professor who 
gave as the explanation of his custom of taking 
off his hat to his pupils that he so acted out of 
respect to the potential ability among them. 


COUEISM IN THE SCHOOLROOM 169 

“How oft the greatest genius lies concealed!” 
exclaimed Plautus; and Professor T. H. Pear, of 
Manchester University, declared that “in a men¬ 
tal test” a genius “may appear to be stupid.” A 
teacher who claimed to encourage self-initiative 
in the children under her care (self-education in¬ 
stead of constant lecturing, and so on) asked 
how she ought to deal with a certain boy who 
would insist upon sticking at a subject beyond the 
time assigned, hardly giving any attention to the 
succeeding subject. We observed and talked with 
the lad. He was apparently the best boy in the 
school, shrewd and original! 

We do not doubt that special aptitudes form 
the basis of genius, its predisposition; but attitude 
of mind and a habit of continued, easy attention 
are the revealing agents. 

In a measure we can extemporise genius. 

The Efficient Teacher.—Ferguson, when tend¬ 
ing sheep in the field, accurately marked with a 
thread and beads the position of the stars, and 
constructed a watch from wood. But such an 
instance of initiative is rare, and the duty of a 
teacher is to do for his pupils what they can- 


1 7 o CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

not do for themselves, and what they cannot do 
without the expenditure of too much time and 
energy. 

The first duty of a teacher is to make the pupil 
desirous of studying. In a measure this end can 
be attained by arousing the children’s curiosity. 
They should solve each question either alone or 
with a minimum of assistance from the teacher. 

The would-be efficient teacher must study char¬ 
acter, must strive to identify himself or herself in 
imagination with every pupil and vary the mental 
food in accordance with the child’s mind. Of 
wide application is the truth thus enunciated by 
Sir Joshua Reynolds: “The mind is but a bar¬ 
ren soil; is a soil soon exhausted, and will pro¬ 
duce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually 
fertilised and enriched with foreign matter.” 

An English educational inspector, Mr. Ben- 
chard Branford, justly laments: “It is, surely, 
one of the fundamental weaknesses of modern 
education that, from a false economy and other 
motives, we are compelled to educate our pupils 
in such large groups and by methods too similar. 
The apparently inevitable result is, in general, the 


COUEISM IN THE SCHOOLROOM 171 

stunting of valuable variations in individuality and 
the production of too large numbers of individu¬ 
als with closely similar powers.” “Education, to 
be successful,” declares Mr. Branford, “must 
not only inform, but inspire” We would point 
out that nothing is so fitted to reduce the difficulty 
mentioned as regards collective tuition and to 
inspire enthusiasm as methodical suggestion such 
as will be described later. 

Baudouin well remarks: “We must teach chil¬ 
dren to do justice to all their faculties; they must 
not let any one faculty encroach; they must not, 
for example, allow imagination to usurp the place 
of reason; they must cultivate every faculty, im¬ 
agination as much as the rest, nay, more than the 
rest.” Artistic education and autosuggestion, 
Baudouin points out, each help the other. 

Freedom.—Much has been written of late 
years regarding allowing freedom to school chil¬ 
dren. When analysed we invariably find that un¬ 
recognised suggestion enters largely into these 
methods; indeed, accounts in no small measure for 
their good results. 

We are whole-hearted believers in freedom 


i 7 2 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

ourselves, but such freedom infers increased 
power and happiness. As we before remarked, 
man wills as do the lower animals, but more in¬ 
telligently. Most people have but little material 
to draw upon; with them the most favourable 
mental condition for study is unrecognised and 
uncultivated. 

We want to make the child’s disciplining power 
eventually come entirely from within. We there¬ 
fore appeal to the child’s unconscious, and thereby 
enlist its aid. We believe in making the medita¬ 
tive condition so familiar to the child that he or 
she can assume it readily—in a moment. The 
child is thus better prepared for active life than 
would otherwise be the case, for petty hindrances 
are bound to occur during the course of work, and, 
should the child be unable to keep the reins of 
the momentarily relinquished subject well in hand 
ready to be taken up again without difficulty, he 
is severely handicapped. 

The Chinese philosopher Confucius, who lived 
during the sixth century before the Christian era, 
stated: “Learning without thought is labour 

lost; thought without learning is perilous”; and 


COUEISM IN THE SCHOOLROOM 173 

again: “Labour, but slight not meditation; medi¬ 
tate, but slight not labour.” Hazlitt wrote: 
“The more we do, the more we can do; the more 
busy we are, the more leisure we have.” Sir 
Horace Vere was asked by the Marquis Spinola: 
“Pray, of what did your brother die?” “He 
died, sir,” was the reply, “of having nothing to 
do.” “Alas, sir,” said Spinola, “that is enough 
to kill any general of us all.” The Spaniards 
have this proverb: “Men are usually tempted 
by the devil, but the idle man positively tempts 
the devil.” So much for real idleness. There is, 
however, a spurious idleness. The mind is often 
working energetically when the person is sup¬ 
posed to be idling. The sudden brilliant ideas 
that come into consciousness are the result of 
unconscious activity. Moreover, the mental ac¬ 
tivity from which they result is capable of being 
choked at its birth by too many conscious occu¬ 
pations. 

“Circumstances Alter Cases.”—The practice 
of Coueism in the schoolroom should obviously 
be varied in accordance with what has preceded 
or accompanies it, but it can be successfully en- 


174 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

grafted upon any educational system other than 
one whose keynote is brutality. 

The natural guardians of a child are its parents. 
Teachers should regard themselves much as if 
parents by proxy—admirable ones, too. Much of 
what was said in our last chapter applies to 
teachers as much as parents. 

“Example is greater than precept.” The most 
objectionable brutality is that perpetrated under 
the guise of kindness. Governance by the rod is 
cowardly and self-defeating—injurious alike to 
governed and governors. Harshness tends to 
induce a hearty distaste of study as well as of 
those persons who would enforce it. 

Where rewards and punishments have been 
relied upon as main incentives to good behaviour 
Coueism has to be introduced as a remedial agent. 
On the other hand, where sympathy and self-in¬ 
itiative have been previously employed the treat¬ 
ment should take a different form. 

The opinions of very young children respect¬ 
ing right and wrong conduct depend upon whether 
they are reproved or praised. With them, there- 


COUEISM IN THE SCHOOLROOM 175 

fore, any discussion of ethical principles is at least 
wasted, and consequently suggestion should at 
first be in conformity with that fact. Directly, 
however, the child’s understanding is sufficiently 
developed the suggestions should take a different 
form—that of mutual assistance. 

Testing Coueism.—Just one: instance will suf¬ 
fice to illustrate the efficacy of the method advo¬ 
cated. An assistant mistress at an elementary 
school had under her charge a class of ragged 
boys of eight years old and thereabouts. She 
complained that her class was apparently made 
up of children to whom nothing seemed to ap¬ 
peal but corporal punishment, and that even it 
was of very little use. She was daily worn out 
by her endeavours to grapple with her school 
responsibilities. 

At this stage methodical suggestion was brought 
to bear upon herself for the alleviation of her 
personal trouble. It was successful, and she 
agreed to test the effect of Coueism with her class. 
A day or two later she had the children alone in 
a classroom and seized the opportunity thus pre¬ 
sented. After asking them to close their eyes 


i 7 6 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

and to sit just as if they were ready to go to sleep 
she addressed them somewhat as follows: 

“Children, you have come to school to learn 
a number of things that will be useful for you as 
you grow older, and also to be helped to become 
as good and useful men and women as it is pos¬ 
sible for you to become. We teachers have to 
help you to do what you cannot do by your¬ 
selves; I shall do my best for you, and you, of 
course, will strive to make my endeavours as use¬ 
ful as possible. You will help me in my work. 
Isn’t this a nice thought to always bear in mind? 
We have come to school to help one another. 

“I want you to say to yourselves: ‘I am start¬ 
ing upon my work this morning’ (or ‘this after¬ 
noon’) ‘with the idea that I shall do it better 
than I have ever done anything else.’ With that 
idea in mind you will really do your best work. 
Your work won’t seem drudgery to you unless 
you make it do so; and you all have too much 
sense to do that. You will never worry over 
any work given you to do, but will say to your¬ 
selves: ‘Some children would worry over this 
work, but that would be worse than useless to 


COUEISM IN THE SCHOOLROOM 177 

them. I shall give my full attention to it, not 
trouble about anything else, and then I shall do 
the best work of which I am capable.’ All your 
work will in that way become easier and easier 
day by day; you will remember all your lessons 
and be able to recollect anything just when you 
want to. 

“You will endeavour to follow my instructions 
exactly, knowing that everything I say or do as 
teacher will be intended for your benefit. If you 
did otherwise it would be harmful to yourselves 
as well as to me; but you wish to learn all you 
can, and I am sure will also wish to be fair to 
everyone. You will never do to others what, if 
you were in the same position, you would not like 
them to do to you. When playtime comes you 
will enjoy your games all the more because you 
will have worked well. Every day you will be¬ 
come better and better in every way.” 

The children immediately proved their recep¬ 
tiveness by entering into the scheme with zest. 
Their bad conduct almost entirely ceased; in¬ 
stead they were evidently determined to make 
their teacher and one another happy. In spite of 


i 7 8 conscious autosuggestion 

the fact that the treatment has been repeated but 
a very few times (daily treatment is advisable) 
the educational progress of the children has been 
most marked from the start. Only on one occa¬ 
sion (and for that the teacher blamed herself) 
has corporal punishment been administered to a 
child. The teacher was astonished to find that, in 
spite of long experience of children, she knew so 
little of their psychical natures, and, like every¬ 
one who has given suggestive treatment a fair 
trial, she now is an enthusiastic advocate of it in 
the schoolroom. 

Further Hints.—If you are a teacher look at 
your pupils in order to ascertain how far they are 
mastering and applying the secret of effective 
thinking. If you see hard-drawn lines on the face, 
or other muscular tension, ask the child affected 
to close its eyes, and then tell it that it will al¬ 
ways remain calm and, consequently, always do 
its best work. 

Should a child misbehave, gently ask it why it 
so acted. Say: “I’m sure you don’t really wish 
to be unfair to us all. You gave way to a sud¬ 
den impulse. You are an active child, and I am 


COUEISM IN THE SCHOOLROOM 179 

sure can grow up into a very fine man” (or 
“woman”). “Close your eyes and say to your¬ 
self: ‘A thing like that will not occur again. I 
shall be a good boy’ (or ‘girl’) ‘always.’ Now 
you’ve done that you will be better. It is really 
a very easy thing to overcome all your faults, 
and, as a very sensible child, you’ll do it in the 
way I have shown to you.” 

Rousseau wrote: “The most critical interval 
of human nature is that between the hour of our 
birth and twelve years of age. This is the time 
wherein vice and error take root without our 
being possessed of any instrument to destroy 
them.” Whatever was the case when those words 
were written (1749) the desired “instrument” is 
now in our hands—it is methodical suggestion. 


CHAPTER XIII 


ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL HINTS, 
MAINLY FOR ADULTS 

The Versatility of Coueism.—About the middle 
of the nineteenth century the celebrated Dr. Aber¬ 
crombie wrote: “There is every reason to be¬ 
lieve that the diversities in the power of judging, 
in different individuals, are much less than we are 
apt to imagine; and that the remarkable differ¬ 
ences observed in the act of judging are rather 
to be ascribed to the manner in which the mind is 
previously directed to the facts on which the 
judgment is afterwards to be exercised.” 

With the inference embodied in that passage 
we wholly agree. What Dr. Abercrombie appar¬ 
ently did not realise was exactly wherein lay the 
main difference between right and wrong atten¬ 
tion. 

Long experience and ample opportunities of 
verification have taught us that time, labour, and 

180 


EDUCATIONAL HINTS 181 

money are saved by the application of psychics 
to every branch of education. Teachers of all 
descriptions should see to it that their pupils 
are not handicapped by a wrong mental condition 
or attitude. Such care amply repays the teacher 
both as regards easing his own work and getting 
better results with his pupils as a whole. 

To the notice of those adults as yet inexperi¬ 
enced in the personal employment of Coueism we 
would commend the following anecdote: “Soc¬ 
rates,” said Demosthenes, “in his old age hap¬ 
pened to be playing on the lyre, and thrumming 
away upon the strings, when somebody came up 
and said: ‘What! are you, at your time of life, 
playing on the lyre?’ ‘Aye,’ said he, ‘it is better 
to learn a thing late than not at all.’ ” 

Space does not permit of our here entering 
into detailed instructions regarding the applica¬ 
tion of psychics to any particular branch of edu¬ 
cation. We are confident, however, that the brief 
instructions about to be given will be found help¬ 
ful to many. 

Memory Culture.—Sir Francis Gal ton, in his 
Enquiries into Human Faculty, wrote: “When 


182 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


I am engaged in trying to think anything out the 
process of doing so appears to be this: the ideas 
that lie at any moment within my full conscious¬ 
ness seem to attract of their own accord the most 
appropriate out of a number of other ideas that 
are lying close at hand, but imperfectly within the 
range of my consciousness.” 

Below the level of ordinary consciousness there 
undoubtedly are multitudinous ideas that are un¬ 
likely to be ever recalled, but which will neverthe¬ 
less arise into consciousness should a certain requi¬ 
site stimulus be applied. The main reason that 
people fail to recollect to order is that they are 
afraid they cannot recollect—consequently make 
an effort to succeed. Memory, however, can¬ 
not be coerced. If the required idea does not ap¬ 
pear to be close at hand the right things to do 
are to abandon effort and to assume: “I shall 
recollect.” The required idea is usually then 
searched for and arises into consciousness. 

Of the many elaborate systems of memorising 
not one is of the slightest use unless the prepara¬ 
tory assumption of remembering be made. In 


EDUCATIONAL HINTS 183 

reality the vast majority of memory-systems much 
increase the amount that has to be memorised. 

Actors and public speakers should bear in mind 
the warning never to trouble about what they 
should say a few sentences ahead, but to merely 
express each thought when the corresponding 
words arise into consciousness. 

Persons who attempt to remember through 
mere verbal repetition what they have to recite 
give themselves additional trouble and in all like¬ 
lihood tend to make their recitation parrotlike. 
A better course is mentally to read through once 
(preferably before retiring) to get the gist of 
the subject, then repeat slowly, assuming in order 
the requisite moods, ideas, and words, and aim¬ 
ing at seeing throughout vivid mental pictures. 
By this means time is saved and the dramatic 
faculty is rapidly developed. 

How to Memorise Instrumental Music.—Be¬ 
fore retiring at night very slowly play over, if 
practicable, the piece to be memorised. Care¬ 
fully note the chord-progression, but make no ef¬ 
fort to remember—merely assume the “I shall 
remember” frame of mind. Repeat the playing 


184 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

(or mental hearing) twice, progressively quicker. 
In the morning the piece seems “an old acquaint¬ 
ance.” With repetition a remarkable power of 
memorising music can be developed in almost any¬ 
one. 

It should be particularly borne in mind that to 
think unduly of any one note in a chord is fatal 
to playing from memory; as is also any attempt 
at coercion. The required ideas must be allowed 
to arise into consciousness through “association.” 

Stage Fright.—The application of Coueism 
for the relief of this distressing condition is as 
efficacious as simple. It consists in the rapid 
repetition, immediately before coming out into 
the open, of the formula: “I have no funk.” 
For a long time past this procedure has been made 
use of effectually by nearly every student at the 
musical academy at Nancy. 

The Abuse of Autosuggestion.—The writer of 
a medical column naively warned his readers that 
the employment of the formula “Day by day, in 
every way, I am getting better and better” would 
not remove wax from an ear. He might have 
added that it would not cleanse a dirty neck nor 


EDUCATIONAL HINTS 185 

blow a nose. As we have pointed out, not only 
in this work but elsewhere, right thought leads to 
right action. The principle holds alike in therapy 
and education. Autosuggestion does not of itself 
supply technical knowledge. A novice does not 
become an expert directly he imagines he is one. 
That is one of the errors of the so-called “Chris¬ 
tian Scientists.” Unlike them, we prefer to as¬ 
sume progressiveness rather than immediate per¬ 
fection. 

“But,” it may be urged, and rightly, “surely 
misplaced self-confidence does not merely prevent 
the acquisition of knowledge—it leads to error.” 
How, then, can a person decide as to whether he 
or she is or is not on the right track? The fol¬ 
lowing anecdote supplies the clue: 

The medieval Italian poet Petrarch has left 
on record that on one occasion he told his con¬ 
fessor, John of Florence: “I applied myself with 
ardour to study, and suffered not a moment to 
be lost. Yet, after all I have done to know some¬ 
thing, I find I know nothing. Shall I quit study? 
Shall I enter into another course?” In return 
Petrarch was assured: “Your condition is not 


186 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

so bad as it appears to you. You knew nothing 
at the time you thought yourself wise, and you 
have made a great step in knowledge in discov¬ 
ering your ignorance. ... In proportion as we 
ascend an elevated place we discover many things 
we did not suspect before. . . . To know the 
disease is the first step towards a cure.” 


CHAPTER XIV 

COUEISM IN MORAL REFORM 

The Sources of Vice.—That tumours on the 
brain, congenital defects, and injuries account for 
much criminality, and that by operative proce¬ 
dures characters may in certain instances be re¬ 
formed, seem to be well-established facts. Equally 
well established, however, is the fact that by 
methodical suggestion a large proportion of 
criminals, especially young ones, can be re¬ 
claimed. 

“All is habit with mankind, even virtue itself,” 
asserted Metastasio. The statement is hyper¬ 
bolical, but it does not greatly overstep the mark. 
“It is extraordinary how little there is to distin¬ 
guish the people that you meet in the dock from 
the people that you meet at a lecture, or in the 
omnibus, or in Parliament,” recently wrote Mr. 
J. A. R. Cairns, a London magistrate. “Theories 
of criminal types are pseudo-scientific.” 

187 


188 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

No one does evil because it is evil. The temp¬ 
tation consists in the fact that the performance 
of the action either affords or promises some 
pleasure to its perpetrator, or he imagines that 
he has not the power to resist the inclination. 

The Bases of Reform.—What, then, for re¬ 
claiming purposes, have we to do? 

1. We have to make sure that the delinquent 
realises why his conduct is self-defeating; and, 
to accomplish this, imagination must be so trained 
as to clearly see the true state of affairs. 

2. We have so to substitute one memory for 
another that, alongside future temptations, a clear 
conception of the right conduct under the circum¬ 
stances will arise into consciousness from the 
mind beneath. Bad habits, be it noted, are mem¬ 
ories of gratified desires—memories which have 
to be crowded out of consciousness and made to 
become non-effective. 

3. We must help the person to obtain and 
retain confidence in his own intrinsic ability to 
reform. We have before noted this conspicuous 
need as regards the habitual drunkard and others. 


COUEISM IN MORAL REFORM 189 

It is curiously observable in persons addicted to 
morphinism, many of whom lie because they have 
been told and believe that untruthfulness is an 
infallible result of their habit. 1 We suspect that 
from unintentional suggestion the lying of many 
kleptomaniacs proceeds. Of that we shall have 
more to say anon. 

Alcoholism and the Drug Habit.—The preva¬ 
lence of the habits referred to has resulted in the 
exploitation of almost innumerable “remedies.” 
For alcoholism bromide of potassium has been 
employed largely. Bicarbonate of soda is the 
principal ingredient of another powder; whilst 
still others contain atropine, hyocine, or other 
poisonous drug. One “remedy” consists of the 
hypodermatic injection of Croton water! For the 
cure of the drug habit hypodermic injections of 
one or other stimulating—or rather irritating— 
drug has been employed. Usually either strych¬ 
nine, atropine, cannabis indica, or hyoscyamine. 

Why all that variety? Voltaire cynically 
remarked: “Incantations and arsenic will kill a 


1 One of the most reliable persons I have ever known inti¬ 
mately was much addicted to morphinism.—J. L. O. 



190 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

whole flock of sheep.” We say: “Drugs and sug¬ 
gestion will kill a whole flock of bad habits.” 
With the “remedies” is always coupled the asser¬ 
tion that the patient will be cured of the habit by 
following directions; and when cure occurs it is 
the outcome of the patient’s confidence in that 
assertion. Substitute an innocuous powder for 
the drug to be taken, or inject pure water, and 
the result is even better—provided, of course, 
that the ruse be undiscovered by the patient. 

We by no means wish to infer that a judicious 
arrangement of the patient’s diet, or other 
hygienic measure, cannot facilitate cure of the 
habit and restoration to physical health. On the 
contrary, we not only approve of, but recommend 
such measures being adopted as are best calcu¬ 
lated to regenerate and build up the organism. 
But we do affirm that whatever else be done, 
unless the mental state be changed, cure is im¬ 
practicable. Therefore, if a “fake” remedy be 
employed it should be backed up by deliberate 
and detailed suggestion on the part of the medical 
or other practitioner. The tendency to relapse 
in these cases is so great, however, that more 


COUEISM IN MORAL REFORM 191 

methodical suggestion should be employed when¬ 
ever practicable. 

The patient should attend, or be attended, for 
suggestive treatment at least once daily until the 
harmful habit is completely undermined. In 
treating such a person you should make him 
realise, by means of the preparatory experiments, 
that cure has to come from within, but that he 
cannot possibly succeed by trying desperately, and 
that effort is needless and self-defeating. Con¬ 
vince him by demonstrations that what he has to 
do is to conjure up in consciousness a picture of 
himself as free, or becoming free, of the craving, 
and then must simply submit to the conjured-up 
impressions. (When freedom from a degrading 
habit follows prayer this feeling underlies the 
cure; the person, believing that the boon of free¬ 
dom has been conferred, ceases to defeat his own 
endeavours.) Tell the patient that he must not 
say to himself that he will be able to resist temp¬ 
tation, but that there will be no temptation, the 
habit becoming distasteful. Convince him that 
what autosuggestion has been doing can be over¬ 
come by autosuggestion. When that point has 


i 9 2 conscious autosuggestion 

been driven home and self-confidence established 
in a measure the greatest point of all has been 
gained. 

There are cases in which a suggested idea 
strikes home as it were and reform is sudden and 
complete. More often, however, improvement 
alone is at first experienced, and for cure consid¬ 
erable persistence with treatment is required. 

If the other modes of suggestive treatment 
can be supplemented by nightly treatment as 
recommended for children they should by all 
means. 

Sexual Errors.—We have seen abundant evi¬ 
dence of the fact that much harm is wrought by 
many “purity” books which exaggerate or mis¬ 
represent to the youthful mind a variety of mat¬ 
ters relating to sex. Though some few youthful 
readers of such books are only too well aware 
of their unreliability, there are many persons in 
whom needless fears are aroused, fears which, 
nevertheless, may exercise a baneful influence 
throughout life. When the truth is realised a 
strong antidote is brought to bear, and we would, 
therefore, recommend the perusal of what Pro- 


COUEISM IN MORAL REFORM 193 

fessor August Forel has written on the matter in 
his work on Nerves and Mind. 

For the cure of onanism, too frequent nightly 
emissions, and so on, the same lines should be 
adopted as with alcoholism and the drug habit, 
except with children. With them disquisitions on 
the underlying science of suggestion are best dis¬ 
pensed with. Children should usually be told to 
close their eyes, and then the appropriate sug¬ 
gestions for cure should be made in a confident 
and authoritative tone. With rare exceptions 
children respond immediately to curative sugges¬ 
tions so given. 

Kleptomania.—By some the existence of genu¬ 
ine kleptomania is scouted. One fact that proves 
its existence is that it can be cured. The distinc¬ 
tion between thieving proper and kleptomania is 
that the thief steals from a motive, the klepto¬ 
maniac either without one or through fancying 
that voices demand the appropriation of certain 
articles. The glance of an ordinary kleptomaniac 
may fall upon a bunch of keys, and almost uncon¬ 
sciously he will pocket them—as if to put them 
away. When the missing articles are inquired 


194 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

about the kleptomaniac sometimes remembers the 
whole circumstances and hastens to explain. 

Some writers declare that kleptomania is herit¬ 
able. We doubt the justice of the assumption. 
To illustrate our point of view we quote from 
Professor Quackenbos the following particulars 
regarding the family of a kleptomaniac girl: 
“The patient’s father was a morphinomaniac. 
Her father, who was highly educated, was born 
with a propensity to steal, and did steal, against 
his better impulses and very will. He stole be¬ 
cause he could not help it, and lied for the same 
reason. Haunted by the conviction of his infirm¬ 
ity, and with the consciousness that he could not 
overcome it, he finally became insane. 1 His 
twelve-year-old daughter, a sweet, sensitive, and 
extremely nervous child, has inherited the father’s 
failings, although otherwise mentally normal. 
There is no doubt,” concludes the professor, “that 
this girl may be obliqued from running her 


1 Under the title “Coueism Reversed,” The Daily Express of 
May 2, 1922, reported the case of a lady who committed sui¬ 
cide by jumping from an express train. In a letter to her 
sister she had written: “I grow daily worse. Everything be¬ 
comes more and more impossible.” 



COUEISM IN MORAL REFORM 195 

father’s foil by judicious suggestion.” We would 
point out that veracity and honesty are not born 
with us, but are results of education— i.e., of sug¬ 
gestion. “Savages,” as stated J. S. Mill, “are 
always liars. They have not the faintest notion 
of truth as a virtue.” 

Kleptomaniacs and thieves are equally curable 
by autosuggestion. If the habit be performed 
unconsciously the person should suggest that he 
will become aware directly there arises in himself 
any tendency to appropriate an article. 

The Outlook.—Punitive methods may be in 
some measure a deterrent of criminality, but they 
do not reform the heart. Instead of lopping at 
the branches of the tree of crime (for that is all 
that punishment can accomplish) we should get 
at its root. We should assure such enlightenment 
and assistance as (in the words of Bishop Hurd) 
will best prepare the young “to see the world 
without surprise, and live in it without danger.” 
That end can hardly be attained or approached 
with anything like certainty without the wide¬ 
spread adoption of methodical suggestion; where¬ 
as by the skilful and persistent employment of 


196 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

that agent in every schoolroom the reformatories 
would ere long be almost wholly deprived of new 
inmates; and, if similarly employed in the reform¬ 
atories, more than fifty per cent of vicious chil¬ 
dren could be reclaimed. 

Comparatively few persons become habitual 
criminals before sixteen years of age or after 
twenty-one. As matters now stand, for want of 
a little help, a little methodical suggestion, many 
a life is doomed to shipwreck—many a person 
who might have led a useful existence becomes 
and remains a criminal. 

Moulding Ourselves.—An eventually truly 
great philosopher, scientist, and statesman (we 
refer to Benjamin Franklin) thus wrote when 
steadily ascending the ladder of success: “It is 
said that the Persians, in their ancient constitu¬ 
tion, had public schools, in which virtue was taught 
as a liberal art or science, and it is certainly of 
more consequence to a man that he has learnt to 
govern his passions; in spite of temptation to be 
just in his dealings, to be temperate in his pleas¬ 
ures, to support himself with fortitude under his 
misfortunes, to behave with prudence in all his 


COUEISM IN MORAL REFORM 197 

affairs, and in every circumstance in life; I say it 
is of much more real advantage to him to be 
thus qualified than to be a master of all the arts 
and sciences in the world beside. Virtue alone 
is sufficient to make a man great, glorious, and 
happy.” 

Autosuggestion as a means of moulding one¬ 
self more in accordance with one’s ideals is 
applicable alike to believers in revelation and to 
agnostics. 

Mr. C. Harry Brooks, a pious Christian, may 
be cited as a typical example of an autosugges- 
tionist of the former class. He writes as follows: 
“The lives of many men and women are robbed 
of their true value by twists and flaws of character 
and temperament, which, while defying the efforts 
of the will, would yield rapidly to the influence 
of autosuggestion.” “Autosuggestion is no sub¬ 
stitute for religion; it is rather a new weapon 
added to the religious armoury. If as a mere 
scientific technique it can yield such results what 
might it not do as the expression of those high 
yearnings for perfection which religion incorpo¬ 
rates.” 


198 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

From the opposite (the agnostic) standpoint 
we find, about the beginning of the present cen¬ 
tury, “Philip Vivian” stating, in The Churches 
and Modern Thought, his conviction that as a 
moralising agent autosuggestion would prove use¬ 
ful to persons destitute of belief in a personal 
God and an after-life, “and that one day psychical 
research would lead to the discovery of a complete 
and scientific method for the toughening of our 
moral fibres.” Many are of opinion that Coueism 
(which was in course of formulation when those 
words were written) exactly corresponds to that 
description. However that may be, the day will 
surely come when, as predicted by Dr. Forbes 
Winslow, through the widespread adoption of 
methodical suggestion, “the world will be mate¬ 
rially strengthened in mental tone. Crime will 
disappear, internal jealousies will fade into noth¬ 
ingness, and wars become a mere recollection of 
a barbaric period.” 


CHAPTER XV 


CONCLUDING HINTS 


S an exponent of Coueism you will doubtless 



come into direct contact with adherents of 


various other systems of mind healing. It is im¬ 
practicable to deal fully with all or any of those 
systems here; but we trust that a few remarks on 
some of them will prove of service to many of our 
readers. 

We ask you to assume that three persons— 
viz., Coueist, Bookworm, and Perplexed—are 
discussing mental healing. We shall refer to 
Coueist as “C,” to Bookworm as “B,” and to 
Perplexed as “P ” 

P .«—So you went to Nancy out of curiosity and 
have returned therefrom an ardent disciple of 
Mons. Coue? 

C .—That describes my position exactly. Scep¬ 
tical as I was to begin with, in face of what I not 
only witnessed but personally experienced, my 
scepticism gave way entirely. 


199 


200 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 


B. —Strange how strong is the influence some¬ 
times wielded by these faith healers! The kind 
of sensation produced by Mons. Coue’s cures has 
occurred periodically both in ancient and in mod¬ 
ern times. You know what Charcot said—“C’est 
la foi qui sauve, ou qui guerit” (“It is faith which 
saves or cures”). 

C. —Charcot’s saying may be quite true, but it 
is hardly fair to class Mons. Coue with the ordi¬ 
nary faith healer. I grant you many people visit 
Nancy as they might a shrine. I was not one of 
those, however. Moreover, Mons. Coue and his 
disciples persistently disclaim any especial power. 
The proficiency of exponents of Coueism doubt¬ 
less varies. The disparity, however, must mainly 
be ascribed to the grasp possessed of the princi¬ 
ples involved and their judicious application. 

P.—That is very much what Christian Scien¬ 
tists would say. 

C .—Perhaps so, but there is an essential differ¬ 
ence between so-called Christian Science (spuri¬ 
ous science it really is) and Coueism. 

P.—What is that difference, may I ask? 

C.—The difference is this: Mrs. Eddy, the 


CONCLUDING HINTS 


201 


founder of Christian Science, asserted the unreal¬ 
ity of matter and the universality of spirit. 
Mons. Coue, on the other hand, founded his sys¬ 
tem upon well-established physiological and psy¬ 
chological facts. 

P. —But, if everything came from spirit, are not 
the Christian Scientists correct in saying that mat¬ 
ter is really non-existent? 

C. —Suppose, for the sake of argumentation, 
I allow you that point, / would ask you a question 
or two. May I not with justice equal to that of 
your own contention affirm that a chicken does 
not really exist? Was it not potentially con¬ 
tained in an egg? Or is it the egg that didn’t 
exist because it proceeded from a fowl? 

B. —Apparently Mrs. Eddy borrowed her the¬ 
ory from Hinduism. Professor Monier Williams 
gives as a Brahmanic principle that “Nothing 
really exists but the one Universal Spirit called 
Brahman, and whatever appears to exist separate 
from that Spirit is mere illusion.” 

P .—But can the reality of matter be proved? 

C. —We must assume the reality of matter be¬ 
fore we begin to argue. It is a primary truth 


202 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

—impossible of genuine disbelief. A Christian 
Scientist had been long arguing upon the unreal¬ 
ity of matter. His auditor expressed himself as 
verbally convinced but desirous of putting a little 
“imaginary” pepper into an “imaginary” eye of 
the Scientist as a final test. The experiment 
wasn’t tried! “Tumours, ulcers, inflammation, 
pain, deformed spines are all dream shadows,” 
Mrs. Eddy confidently affirmed. She died, not¬ 
withstanding, of a dream shadow (of course), 
death being an illusion. Indeed, of dream shad¬ 
ows, either in our minds, or in those of the vic¬ 
tims, the imaginary bodies of—should I say 
“imaginary”?—creatures lower in the scale than 
ourselves are continually appearing to die. 

P .—But are not the final results of Christian 
Science and Coueism alike? Does not Christian 
Science remove pain? and is it not instrumental 
in bringing about cures of both functional and 
organic diseases? 

C .—I grant you so-called Christian Science can 
and does bring about numerous cures; but it also 
is productive of disease through its utter disre¬ 
gard of genuine science. Hygiene, for example, 


CONCLUDING HINTS 


203 

is purposely ignored by the votaries of Christian 
Science—of course, in their estimation it is an 
illusion. On the same assumption, so is Mrs. 
Eddy’s book Science and Health —and each of a 
thousand and one other things, many of which 
are equally prized by Christian Scientists and con¬ 
fessed believers in the reality of matter. 

B. —The popularity of Christian Science is not 
hard to understand. As La Rochefoucauld cyn¬ 
ically stated: “Nothing convinces persons of weak 
understanding so effectually as what they fail to 
comprehend.” 

C. —Unfortunately a large majority of the 
votaries of Christian Science swallow enough false 
doctrine to lead to ill effects apparent in a num¬ 
ber of unsuspected ways. Dogmas do not stand 
alone in the mind, but tinge all one’s outlook on 
life. 

P .—Then there must be some good in Chris¬ 
tian Science. At any rate there are many saintly 
characters among professors of the religion. 

C .—I grant you some of them are most es¬ 
timable people; but their devotion to an ideal has 
something to do with it. 


204 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

B . —And may we not parody a remark of the 
philosopher Hegel, and say: “Christian Science 
is a religion which makes people good if they are 
good already”? 

C. —And may I not add that Coueism is not 
merely a method of self-healing; it has a great 
educational value, and forms the basis for a 
philosophy of life so ethically high that we may 
truly say that whilst Christian Science is “a re¬ 
ligion,” Coueism is “religion.” Its votaries have 
a high and constantly ascending ethical ideal up 
to which they strive to live, independent of all re¬ 
wards and punishments—an attitude which (I 
think you will allow) in itself is the very essence 
of religion. 

B. —Still, I suppose the vitality of Christian 
Science is due to its having compensated in a 
measure for a recognised want. 

C. —Doubtless. In the Outlook for April, 
1922 (I remember the date because of a particu¬ 
lar incident), there was an article, by Dr. C. W. 
Saleeby, appreciative of Coueism and its founder. 
The writer declared that were psychology given 
its deserving place in the medical curriculum the 


CONCLUDING HINTS 


205 

innovation “would be worth more to the profes¬ 
sion, in cash and in credit, than, for instance, 
merely to objurate against ‘Christian Science,’ ” 
which, added Dr. Saleeby, “exists and thrives by 
the exploitation of certain important psycholog¬ 
ical truths of which the medical profession is, as 
would appear, wilfully ignorant.” 

B. —Well, if I stood in need of psychological 
treatment I should prefer to get the full effect of 
imagination. I should go to a competent hyp¬ 
notist. As Professor Bernheim wrote, “The 
imagination is put into such a condition by the 
hypnosis that it cannot escape from the sugges¬ 
tion.” 

C. —And, of course, you should put alongside 
that statement that of Dr. Milne Bramwell re¬ 
garding a stock subject of Bernheim and Lie- 
beault. This subject was declared to fulfil sug¬ 
gestions with the fatality of a falling stone; but, 
nevertheless, refused, through mere caprice, to 
comply with a commonplace suggestion. 

P .—But I have seen hypnotised persons act 
ridiculously on the stage. 

C .—I don’t doubt it. However, they were 


206 conscious autosuggestion 

either paid for so behaving, or imagined that they 
were unable to do otherwise than directed. Even 
persons of the second class refuse to comply with 
a criminal suggestion, the instinct of self-preser¬ 
vation coming to the rescue. 

B. —In that case hypnotism does not exist. 

C. —Transcendental hypnotism does not. The 
only rational hypnotism is really autosuggestion, 
and that is why Mons. Coue stated (in Self Mas¬ 
tery) : “Autosuggestion is nothing but hypno¬ 
tism as I see it.” By the way, harking back to 
your quotation from Professor Bernheim, you 
may be interested to learn that among Mons. 
Coue’s cured cases a considerable number had 
been “hypnotically” treated by Bernheim in vain. 

B. — I was unaware of that fact. I now have 
an inkling of why Lord Kelvin, the great physi¬ 
cist, declared one half of hypnotism to be hum¬ 
bug and the other half bad observation, and why 
Charles Darwin would never believe in hypnotism. 

C. —Evidently you have based your remark 
anent Charles Darwin upon a statement of Lom- 
broso, founded upon a comment of Darwin re¬ 
garding mesmerism. It is true that Darwin 


CONCLUDING HINTS 


207 

never believed in transcendental hypnotism, nor 
in any of the so-called “occult” phenomena, but 
he even went so far as to realise that attention 
stood at the base of the genuine phenomena of 
hypnotism. 

B. —I see. What Darwin doubted was the 
truth of the theory of the mesmerists. 

C. —Exactly. He remarked that he was puz¬ 
zled to understand why the existence of the mag¬ 
netic fluid, the transference of which from oper¬ 
ator to patient was believed to account for the 
cures performed, was not tested by treatment of 
the lower animals. 

P. —What, then, is the genuine hypnotism? 

C .—Merely a purposive induction, develop¬ 
ment, and utilisation of the condition of profound 
but easy attention characteristic of genius—what 
is sometimes called a “brown study.” The “hyp¬ 
notist” when employed (and he need not be) is 
merely a helper —when he is not a hinderer! 

B .—Of course I have noted with surprise the 
numerous theories of hypnotism. After all, Bern- 
heim’s theory was little better than the fluidic. 
He merely substituted for the magnetic fluid the 


208 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

operator’s suggestion, which, he said, caused t 
cures. 

P .—But does it not cause them? 

C .—Certainly not, for the subject may not 
spond. The healing agent is the autosuggesti 
subsequent to the suggestion of the operate 
which calls into play the bodily mechanism whi 
is essential to cure. 

P .—However did these mistakes regarding t 
mind arise? 

C .—Surely Lord Kelvin’s remark, cited by i 
friend here, explains. Subjects’ personal ch. 
acteristics have usually been untested previous 
so-called hypnotisation, and as a consequence 
number of spurious phenomena have been a 
cepted as genuine. Investigators have attempte 
to explain why that happens which does not reall 
happen though it appears, upon superficial ot 
servation, to do so. 

B. —There is one thing that still puzzles me. 
Hypnotism is commonly held to be far more effi 
cacious than autosuggestion. 

C. —You should not treat the many systems of 
autosuggestion as of equal value—some are worse 


CONCLUDING HINTS 209 

ian useless. Coueism is a separate and definite 
rhnique for the teaching and practice of auto- 
iggestion—as well as the basis (as I said before) 
a practical philosophy. 

B. —I have often seen the statement made that 
uch of Coueism is borrowed. 

C. —I grant you that it is. I may even point 
it that methodical autosuggestion is of very an- 

nt origin. Ages ago the Hindus employed it 
• the attainment of moral perfection. From 
lia the practice spread to Chaldea, Mesopo- 
nia, Syria, and Egypt. In Greece, whose cul- 
*e was largely derived from Phoenician and 
gyptian sources, autosuggestion was taught by 
ythagoras and other philosophers. From Greek 
>urces the custom was transmitted to the Latin 
oralists. And so on. Doubtless all who suc- 
eeded in the practice did so because they applied 
however unwittingly) what Mons. Coue has in- 
isted are the essential points. Until recently, 
owever, the proportion of persons who have suc- 
.eeded in deriving any substantial benefit from 
autosuggestion has been extremely limited. And 
if you ask “Why?” I answer: “Because the sys- 




210 CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION 

terns were inefficient for the many.” “Divide and 
conquer,” declared Dr. Samuel Johnson, is a 
principle equally just in science as in policy.” 
Avoiding side issues, Mons. Coue’s technique 
starts with the simplest elements—truths readily 
understood and utilised. They take the citadel. 
Mons. Coue employs various borrowed artifices, 
but he has placed them in a new light—and what 
is invention but recombination? 

B. —Perhaps one reason that Mons. Coue has 
succeeded so phenomenally is that his system fits 
the present age like a glove. Still, we must take 
into account psycho-analysis. I heard a soldier 
who was suffering from neurasthenia (psychas- 
thenia, to be more specific) say that at one hos¬ 
pital he was told to try to forget his troubles, but 
at another to talk about them as much as he could. 
Is not that where the disagreement occurs be¬ 
tween the respective advocates of methodical sug¬ 
gestion and psycho-analysis? 

C. —If you look a little closer I think you will 
perceive that autosuggestion enters very largely 
into psycho-analysis. Not only is psycho-analysis 
often like a bread-and-sugar pill, the good effects 


CONCLUDING HINTS 


21 I 


in many other cases are brought about by a sug¬ 
gested change of mental attitude and the aboli¬ 
tion of distracting effort. “I want to ignore this 
disagreeable occurrence, but I can’t,” gives place 
to: “I don’t wish to stifle this idea, for it won’t 
hurt me.” In no case can one fact be inconsistent 
with another, whatever it may appear to be. 

B. —My mistake has been relying solely upon 
others’ observations instead of testing matters for 
myself. Yet, nearly all the time that I have been 
merely confusing myself I have known that 
Leonardo da Vinci insisted upon the vital impor¬ 
tance of experimentation to whoever would un¬ 
derstand nature. 

P. —You have certainly aroused my curiosity 
too. 

C. —I thank you for your kind admissions. As 
an enthusiastic Coueist I shall be further gratified 
if you will take a hint from a couplet of Arch¬ 
bishop Trench. It runs thus: 

Seize, oh, seize the instant time; you never will 

With water once passed by impel the mill. 


THE END 


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